I Am Unapologetically... Pro All Forms of Knowledge That Can Increase Our Capacity to Satisfy Human Needs and Aspirations, Kim Carr. (September 30, 2009)

Yesterday the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research addressed the BioMelbourne Network CEO Forum. The minister opened with:

It is heartening to see organisations like the World Wide Fund for Nature – organisations that aren’t always enthusiastic about new technologies – recognising the potential of industrial biotechnology to dramatically reduce our carbon-dependency. A report released by the fund this month suggests that industrial biotechnology, while still in its infancy, is already saving us from emitting 33 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide globally each year – and that’s without taking ethanol use into account. It estimates that this could reach 2.5 billion tonnes a year by 2030. (Industrial Biotechnology: More than Green Fuel in a Dirty Economy?)

Just to keep matters in perspective that 33 million tonnes is about 0.12% of current annual anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. That said the 2.5 billion tonnes by 2030 would equal ~10% of current emissions.

The minister emphasised that "Investing in innovation is one of the most effective ways we can cushion Australia against the effects of the global downturn and accelerate recovery". He didn't get into the matter of the research infrastructure a nation requires to fuel innovation but then he was talking to CEOs of  biotechnology firms.

As is a politician's wont, Senator Carr launched into a catalogue of the good deeds he and the Labor Party have done since attaining government.

• The urgent action we took last October to stabilise the banking system was one response to that particular problem [biotechnology firms being denied access to critical capital].

• The new $83 million Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund.

• We have invested $77 billion in a carefully phased stimulus strategy, 70 per cent of which has gone into infrastructure.

• Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21^st Century. We have backed that agenda with series of landmark reforms and an additional $3.1 billion over four years for research and innovation.

• The total Commonwealth budget for research and innovation in 2009-10 will be around $8.6 billion – 25 per cent more than last year.

• The most important reform to business innovation support in the Budget – indeed the most important reform in this field for at least a decade – is the new R&D Tax Credit. The R&D Tax Credit will be worth about $1.4 billion a year to business. -- a 45 per cent refundable tax credit for firms with a turnover up to $20 million, and a 40 per cent non refundable tax credit for all other firms.

• The Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute will receive $196 million over the next four years and $82 million a year thereafter to deliver a radically new approach to commercialising the best Australian research. It will make it easier for public sector researchers and private sector innovators to access the knowledge, skills and capital they need to cross the so-called valley of death.

• The Future Industries component of the Super Science Initiative has significant implications for the biotechnology sector. This component is worth $504 million – or nearly half of the $1.1 billion we are putting into Super Science overall.

The senator then recapitulated:

I went to my colleagues at a time of great uncertainty with a message of hope about research and innovation – a message about how it will generate the jobs and industries of the future.

They heard that message and they responded – magnificently, in my view.

We got an extra $3.1 billion.

We got the R&D Tax Credit.

We got the Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute.

We got the Super Science Initiative.

We got the Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund.

We got an extra $703 million for university research over the next four years, and that figure will keep growing with indexation in the years ahead.

And then:

...public funds [should] go where they will have the best effect and yield the highest returns – not just to this company or that industry, but to the economy and the community as a whole.

You should be in no doubt about where I stand. I am unapologetically pro-biotech, pro-nanotech, pro-space research – in fact, pro all forms of knowledge that can increase our capacity to satisfy human needs and aspirations. That’s why I have worked so hard to get research and innovation as close to the front of the queue as I possibly can – and why I am counting on you to help me keep them there.

So by all means share your ideas. By all means tell us what you want. But don’t lose sight of what we have achieved. Focus on what’s there, not on what isn’t. Let’s make a success of what we’ve got. That’s always the best argument for getting more.

The good senator has a point; the Rudd Labor government has taken significant steps to assist innovation and research, and it acknowledges that more, a lot more, still needs doing. What remains unclear, however, is whether deeds will match words and whether or not the government has the ability and the will to exercise a sufficiently sure and light touch in its mode of leadership of the research community.