In this think piece, economist and CSIRO Board member, Emeritus Professor Roy Green, sees innovation and the success of Prime Minister Albanese’s Future Made in Australia plan as intertwined, viewing the proposed legislation as ‘not just be a tidy-up but a major change in the way Australia does innovation and industrial policy’.
Realising a Future Made in Australia will require ‘a more coordinated approach to the revival and reinvention of our manufacturing capability’, Green contends, including innovative product development, which requires collaborative R&D. He notes that ‘as a share of GDP, Australia’s R&D expenditure has declined to 1.68 percent, way behind the OECD average, with universities now doing ‘much of the heavy lifting’ but that clearly, ‘this is not a sustainable proposition’.
Sufficient funds to enable the broad, large-scale collaborative effort will be needed if we’re to revive Australian-made, Australian-led manufacturing and end what the author refers to as ‘innovation stifling market concentration … which privileges the export of unprocessed raw materials over more complex, value-adding activities’.
In focusing on our comparative advantage in resources, Green asserts, ‘policymakers missed the chance to pursue new and existing areas of competitive advantage, based on knowledge and ingenuity.’ However, we now have another chance to get it right. ‘The scale of the opportunity is huge – to grow the industries and jobs of the future in a global market estimated to be worth $10 trillion by 2050,’ Green says. ‘The Future Made in Australia initiative is the first step in a coordinated ‘whole of government’ approach to enabling competitive advantage in a new, higher value adding growth market for entrepreneurial Australian firms. It will require close collaboration by industry with research and education institutions… which can and do play a major part in lifting innovation and enterprise capability.’
Source: Towards the role of industry policy I AU Manufacturing
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