This was my op-ed for The Australian during the last federal election.
We’re two weeks into the federal election campaign but there is one thing missing in each of the major parties’ campaigns compared with the 2016 election: innovation.
I’m extremely concerned and disappointed about this. I think many other young Australians are too because the future prosperity of our country relies on us being able to innovate in new fields, not in supporting old industries such as mining and property.
Nor is offering more incentives to small business the only answer.
Their role is not in research and development. They don’t nurture new industries or create new markets with new products. Your corner shop, while performing an important service, won’t create the next iPhone or Airbnb platform.
So why is innovation not an election issue when we know that innovation-led growth is what drives and expands an economy to create more (and better) jobs, services and products, and gain a foothold in entirely new markets?
My friends in politics will tell me this is because innovation just doesn’t resonate with the Australian voters. It’s a dud, they will say.
Just look at the 2016 election campaign when Malcolm Turnbull proclaimed a more innovative future. Voters didn’t know how to respond and their ambivalence was clear. It even may have had an adverse impact, with fears of big (American) tech companies muscling in on local operators.
Part of the problem is that innovation isn’t a burning-issue platform by itself. It’s like calling up your parents and shouting to them how you’re going to be “more innovative”. It doesn’t mean much unless you apply it to something concrete.
To further obscure the issue, the true long-term cost of not having an innovation agenda today isn’t immediately obvious.
That cost comes later in the form of lost opportunities to create new products and new jobs.
Our country then loses out because we have failed to leverage our inventiveness.
For evidence of this, look at the some of the missed opportunities in recent history. Solar photovoltaics and Wi-Fi were both technologies with numerous high-quality Australian-made inventions and patents, and benefited from Australian government-funded research. However, neither opportunity was truly capitalised on locally. The real economic value was captured by other nations, which build the products that we now buy from them.
The 1 Million New Jobs Challenge
My challenge to all political parties is to take on the mission to put Australia at the forefront of future new industries. Fund our brightest young students and researchers to create entirely new industries and new markets, and to make a profound impact on the future of our country and the world.
My challenge is to invest $1 billion, to fund 10,000 new entrepreneurs who will go on to create one million jobs in new industries.
This should be a national mission to equip future generations of Australians to help the world progress across three key growth themes:
- Future energy: As the world grows we need better ways to power our devices and cities, which is important for Australia given our heavy economic reliance on coal. For example, we would want to encourage more people working on grid-scale energy storage, better battery technologies and new energy sources.
- Future food: The way we eat and what we consume will need to change to sustainably feed the world, but it’s unclear who will create these alternative solutions or how. Ideas should cover technologies for better farming, healthier foods, meat alternatives, innovation in global food production and supply chains.
- Future humanity: Technology can have a huge impact on how we behave and our quality of life. New solutions always introduce new problems and new opportunities. This area should address solutions that affect us and how we treat ourselves as individuals and as a society. Ideas can cover artificial intelligence applications in medicine and diagnosis, synthetic biology, and better models for social innovation for a more inclusive and wealthier society.
The $1bn can be broken up into the following areas: catalyst, new ideas, startups, education and support.
First, $150 million should be put into catalysing new ideas and boosting awareness.
This can be in the form of big cash prizes in “grand challenge competitions” across the growth areas to encourage young people across Australia (and globally with Australian partners) to apply with their projects, ideas and impactful research.
Then $300m should be used for one-year “new-idea loans” to fund 10,000 young entrepreneurs under the age of 40 with up to $30,000 each.
They can use this money to experiment entrepreneurially with new ideas and develop their startups. (This could be structured like HECS loans, paid back once they start earning a salary, or they could be asked to contribute equity from successful startups back to the program.)
Another $300m should be allocated into the commercialisation of these new ideas by funding early stage, high-risk startups. The National Science Foundation seed fund program in the US is a good model.
Or it could be allocated competitively to various professional venture capital investors who, in turn, could invest it into high-risk ventures.
The final $250m should be used for education and new support programs. It could boost existing entrepreneurship programs and create new ones across higher education and TAFE, as well as creating programs for primary and secondary schools.
Part of this funding also should be directed at special international “student-entrepreneur visas” to encourage more Asia-focused entrepreneurs to set up in our major cities, as well as a “pathways program” for experienced and accomplished executives to jump into new and growing startups — for example, part-subsiding family relocation or competitive salaries to help mitigate risk.
So this is my challenge. Will the next government, regardless of which party wins, take it up?
This article was originally published in The Australian.
If you would like to read more from me at the intersection of tech, entrepreneurship and education please subscribe here to my newsletter.
1 comment