Interview — 6PR Breakfast with Gareth Parker
GARETH PARKER:
I do want to talk to the Federal Minister for Employment, Workforce, and Skills, Stuart Robert. The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, today making a speech at the National Press Club, emphasising that we need to do better at commercialising our Australian research and know how. Stuart Robert, good morning.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Gareth, good to talk to you.
GARETH PARKER:
Thanks for your time. What does this mean?
MINISTER ROBERT:
If you think back, the Wi-Fi that we use every day, invented by CSIRO. The black box in the aircraft invented by government science, the DSTO here - we do so many things. But unfortunately, a lot of our research, we’re seventh in the world when it comes to blue sky, really exciting research, but only 26th when it comes to commercialisation. So we’ve got this great research but we need to connect it to our great industries. And this is all about doing that connection so we can commercialise and get real value out of the money we put into such wonderful research.
GARETH PARKER:
The PM’s going to talk about modern manufacturing - taking that strategy to the next level. I mean, we’ve seen, with rapid antigen tests for example being in such short supply and we’re importing them all, mostly from China, yet we’ve got companies here that are manufacturing and then exporting to other parts of the world.
MINISTER ROBERT:
There’s about 40 different tests, if you look at that, that have been approved by the TGA. There are Australian companies that are producing tests and are certified by the TGA and absolutely the Australian Government is buying them in droves.
GARETH PARKER:
But they’re selling more overseas than they’re selling here because there’s been, I don’t know, a bit of slowness to realise their importance it seems to me.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Oh, not at all. Companies make their own decisions in terms of where they sell and what they sell for. Some of them have got long term supply contracts and the like. But you’ll see 16 to 30 million of these come through in the coming weeks, as well as a very strong pipeline from Australian suppliers.
GARETH PARKER:
Okay. Back to what the PM’s announcing today. How do you transfer the knowledge that we acquire in our universities to actual commercial products, services, and companies?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Which is a cracker of a question. It’s the right one. Because one of the challenges is you do great blue sky research with a very high technical risk level, if you like. And then you’ve got a valley of death, which is how do you get something from high technical risk - because the research says it’s valid - to be able to commercialise it. And you need a bridge, if you like, to connect industry.
And this is where $1.6 billion through Australia’s Economic Accelerator is designed to do exactly that - create that bridge; allow, in three stages, a hundred companies $500,000; 36 companies then $5 million, right the way through then until you get to CSIRO where we’re building up their main sequence ventures program, which then takes it into industry. So a big bridge to allow great blue sky research to become great products on shelves around the world.
GARETH PARKER:
There’s also money for 1800 industry PhDs and 800 industry Fellows. Who will those people be? Does that have any link to try and attract international students back to Australia?
MINISTER ROBERT:
It’s got more to do with- I think about 40 per cent of our research is actually work in private industry. So a lot of the research they do is disconnected from industry. So one of the ways we want to really connect university research, and other research, is rather than have them beavering away in a lab unaware of what industry is doing, or disconnected, actually have them beavering away, if you like, in industry, in commerce, working on real life programs and real life problems. So that’s designed to connect our great researching, and have them researching in industry from the get go.
GARETH PARKER:
Newspoll yesterday was a shocker for your Government, Minister. Do you think that the Prime Minister can turn it around?
MINISTER ROBERT:
Polls come and go, we’ve seen that. Saw that three years ago, Gareth, in that respect.
GARETH PARKER:
That’s true.
MINISTER ROBERT:
And the last two years have been hard. It’s been difficult. It’s been frustrating for everyone - goodness, frustrating for parents. So it’s wonderful to see four million kids going back to school again. And I understand those frustrations that Australians have got. And we’ll just continue to keep serving them, continue to keep explaining how we’re going in COVID, the decision that are being made. Because Australia’s response to this is world class, Gareth. We’re the only country in the world who’s got more of its citizens employed now than pre-COVID. Unemployment at 4.2 per cent. The mortality rate, always tragic when we lose lives, but so much less on a per capita infection rate - 45,000 less than comparable OECD’s. So we have done well - we’ll continue to explain that. But we do understand the frustrations of Australians.
GARETH PARKER:
Minister, thanks for your time.
MINISTER ROBERT:
Always good to talk to you.
GARETH PARKER:
The Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small Business, and Acting Education Minister, Stuart Robert, on 6PR Breakfast.