Good morning to all of you there in Perth. 

I want to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Owners of the land on which I’m recording this message to you today. 

I also acknowledge the organisers of the 2026 Collaborate Innovate conference, and all of the partners who make this occasion possible. 

I’m sorry I can’t be there with you in person, but I’m so pleased to be able to share my thoughts on Australian research and development. 

These are consequential times, demanding nothing less than the most consequential research and development effort Australia can deliver. 

For more than thirty-five years, Australia’s Cooperative Research Centres have been at the heart of Australian innovation. 

Pooling capital from the public and private sectors, along with talent from our universities and large industrial firms and public science agencies, to deliver on the promise of making Australia a clever country. 

The outcomes of that effort have been impressive. 

World-first breakthroughs in soft contact lens design. 

Carbon-fibre and glass-fibre materials for the world’s vehicles and planes. 

Better ways of managing water scarcity, reducing food waste and protecting Australian plant and animal life from external threats. 

Roughly 150 spin-off companies and a return of $7.73 for every dollar of Australian Government investment. 

And more than 7,000 alumni, who form the spine of modern Australia’s entrepreneurial workforce. 

I know how much work Cooperative Research Australia does, year in and year out, to provide the CRCs and their industry partners with real leadership that’s focussed on big national challenges and representing their interests. 

The next chapter of Australian success requires new technologies, new industrial capabilities and new strategic clarity and prioritisation. 

It requires scientific and industrial research that is firmly focussed on making a stronger Australia that can meet a world less safe and benign than we’ve known for decades. 

Australia’s ability to capitalise on its natural advantages – in clean energy technology, low-carbon manufacturing and critical minerals processing – will depend in large part on the success of our CRCs. 

Earlier this year, I was delighted to join with the Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, to announce a $53 million in the new Critical Metals for Critical Industries CRC. 

This CRC is targeting high-value minerals, breakthrough technologies and sustainable refining methods – creating new job and export opportunities and lifting Australia's processing capability. 

This nation-building investment attracted a further 62 partners and $185 million in private investment so that Australia can unlock a bright future for the refining of these minerals onshore. 

The CMCI CRC is doing what Australia needs its whole national scientific and industrial system to be doing in response to a rapidly changing, unsteady world. 

Focussing on the most important research challenges. 

Working collaboratively across sectors to drive innovation. 

Delivering results that have real impact on Australia’s industrial potential and economic resilience. 

That’s the headline message of the independent Ambitious Australia report, released in March – the most comprehensive evaluation of Australia’s research and development system in nearly two decades. 

Its first recommendation was for the creation of a new national council to improve system alignment and reduce fragmentation in public sector R&D investment. 

I’m pleased to say that the Albanese Government has committed in this year’s budget to establishing a new National Resilience and Science Council to better coordinate R&D investment and effort with national priorities. 

This is a cornerstone reform, replacing pre-pandemic frameworks with a more joined-up, mission-oriented Council that ensures the best scientific advice shapes Australia's economic and industrial success. 

The National Resilience and Science Council will report to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Science, and the Chief Scientist will play a key role as well.

The new Council will also play a role in advising the Government on the implementation of Ambitious Australia’s other recommendations. 

The budget includes a broader suite of measures to strengthen public science institutions and their infrastructure, retarget the Research and Development Tax Incentive and make sure Australian science is making the biggest possible contribution to national productivity and resilience. 

Ambitious Australia’s recommendations amount to a big, ambitious agenda of reform – one that will take more than a single budget or term of government to deliver. 

But that work has commenced. 

And the National Resilience and Science Council will provide strategic direction across all of Australia’s science and industrial system – from our R&D capacity in universities, CRCs and the CSIRO, through to our innovation system, our commercialisation efforts, the Investor Front Door and our special investment vehicles – all to drive impact. 

Its work will – to borrow your theme – drive national growth, and it will have global reach.