E&OE…
Topics: National Innovation and Science Agenda, Climate Change Authority, Arrium, CSIRO, ARENA
TICKY FULLERTON:
The new Minister for Innovation and Science is Greg Hunt and he joins me now from Melbourne. Minister, welcome there.
GREG HUNT:
Hey Ticky, great to be here.
TICKY FULLERTON:
Can I just go to the news of the day which is the split in the Government's Climate Change Authority with two board members, including the only climate scientist, accusing the rest for not giving independent advice around emissions reduction and there's a need to do more?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I'd be very surprised in fact if a former Greens candidate endorsed the Government's position but he's chosen to split from the Chief Scientist, from the former head of the Murray Darling Basin Authority, from eight of Australia's most eminent people in this space, that's entirely a matter for them but what matters to me is we're hitting our targets, we're going to breeze past our targets and most significantly we've done that whilst leading to the greatest reduction in electricity prices on record in Australia and that's policy success.
TICKY FULLERTON:
He would suggest those targets are not the right targets and indeed that you appointed last year, five new board members, some of which were Coalition, now was that a deliberate stacking of the board?
GREG HUNT:
Well, with respect, we had a former Greens candidate and we have instead the Chief Scientist, a former head of the Murray Darling Basin Authority in Danny Price and Stuart Allinson, two of the most eminent environmental economists in Australia and perhaps in Australian history and all up, that's an extraordinarily capable board.
TICKY FULLERTON:
Alright, well let's move to innovation. We're all suffering Minister from start-up, innovation, collaboration fatigue, at least the language. How do we move forward?
GREG HUNT:
Look, my approach is very simple and that is innovation is about both new firms and old firms such as Dulux and BlueScope and Nyrstar all of which I've had the fortune to visit, you've seen incredible turn arounds in each of those businesses and what's driving it? 60 people in R&D at the Clayton office of Dulux where they're engaging in creating new products, new paint, then they're involved in new business innovation in terms of the actual manufacturing process.
Same sort of thing with BlueScope and in Port Pirie I saw the Nyrstar changes where they're investing in new plant, new equipment, but most importantly engaging the workforce in what they call constant innovation, always trying to improve product, process and business model and you're seeing dramatic improvements in productivity where that's put in place.
TICKY FULLERTON:
So, this is a move on from just start-ups and you've announced this National Innovation Fund for sort of between $20 and $200 million matching debt or equity, that's a sort of midsize but how is that different from Labor's Innovation Investment Fund which was axed of course?
GREG HUNT:
Well, what I'm focusing on is exactly the needs that we have for Australia now.
We saw very clearly, through what we've done with the Clean Energy Innovation Fund that if you move from grants to debt and equity, you have the capacity to make maximum use of taxpayer's funds, to get a return for taxpayer, to get 100 per cent of the funds back and to be able to invest in a way which brings private sector funding alongside.
Oftentimes, this sort of investment where you require the private sector funding alongside will actually produce a far better outcome. That's what we're aiming to do with the National Innovation Fund. It's part of the great second wave of the National Innovation Agenda.
TICKY FULLERTON
And is this what you're trying to do with Arrium in terms of the loan that's gone there?
GREG HUNT:
Well, absolutely. My focus and our focus, as a government, is to make sure that we're improving the business environment, we're not putting taxpayer's money after bad situations.
We're actually encouraging the generation of investment and cash flow. In the case of Arrium we provided $49 million.
We delivered it within a week of being sworn in as a new government and it was really the first priority I had and that's likely to produce $200 million of cash flow over the next half a decade through improving the product or the quality of the iron ore that they have for exports so, a really sensible way of protecting the taxpayer's money.
TICKY FULLERTON:
There is this issue of whether government is sort of giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
We've had the argument about CSIRO but more recently the proposed $1.3 billion in cuts to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency funding.
We've been speaking, for example, to a company like Geodynamics who's told us that the uncertainty means that they're going to have to suspend a project. Now, they would think of themselves as key innovators.
GREG HUNT:
Well, with respect, I think that particular case has had probably the best part of $50 million of government grants over 15 years and at some point they need to be able to produce on their own. But more generally, there's $1 billion of existing grants that are being administered by ARENA.
There's $100 million of new grants in solar that will be announced and delivered by the new minister and Josh Frydenberg is the new Minister in that space and in there is $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund, still to come of which the first $10 million was made available as part of a $20 million start-up capital project only last week.
So, there's an enormous amount of funding in that space but we are consciously moving from one off grants to innovation funds which are focusing on debt and equity as a means of ensuring the taxpayer gets 100 per cent of his or her investment back.
TICKY FULLERTON:
Briefly Minister, can I just ask, we've slipped two places in the Global Innovation Index, 17 to 19, how are we going to measure success?
GREG HUNT:
Well, success is more dollars and more investment in the innovation space. I understand that period that was focused on was primarily 2013 under the previous government.
We've introduced the first wave of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, massive investment in big science but also incentives for angel investors and early stage venture capital and then we have a second and a third wave and significantly that's about investment, more in the way of major scientific investment and perhaps most importantly, it's about business simplification which I hope is one of the hallmarks of my time in this role.
TICKY FULLERTON:
Minister, it's great to have you on the program. Thank you so much.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks Ticky.
(ENDS)