SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Well, thank you all very much for coming this morning. This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me all year, this opportunity to launch Ambitious Australia. First of all, I want to thank the panel. The four members of the panel, who’ve done so much work. This report that was commissioned in December of 2024 and delivered to me just before Christmas in 2025. The chair of the panel, Robyn Denholm, is also the chair of a small automotive company called Tesla and is a great Australian. She has lent an enormous amount of her deep expertise and passion for our research and development systems all the way through 2025 to this report and has been a constant source of advice and counsel to me as we’ve moved through the report. So I want to thank you, Robyn, for all of that. 

Ian Chubb, known to everybody across the university system as one of our leading thinkers on universities and research and development, and research and development in university systems with purpose. 

Kate Cornick, who is also with me today, I’m delighted to say has recently been appointed as CEO of the Tech Council of Australia. I can’t think of anybody else more qualified in the Australian R&D, tech and start-up sector to lead that organisation. I’m delighted that from her role in Victoria, which she is still discharging today, that she was able to support this activity. 

And, of course, Fiona Wood, who couldn’t be with us today from Perth, bringing her deep expertise in the medical research and development sector and her passion and commitment for Australia and Australian research and development. 

You could not assemble a more qualified, a more Australian, and a panel with a more of a sense of urgency about what needs to occur for reform for the research and development systems. And you don’t assemble a panel like this and hope that they’re going to just simply regurgitate the Government’s current policy position. This is a challenging report that sets out a systemic response that’s not just about what Government does but is about Government leadership and the whole system working together in the national interest on research and development and innovation. 

And the reason that the report sets out – and I think Robyn set out in your opinion piece in the Financial Review today – is because fundamentally what we are trying to achieve here is a strengthened research and development system to drive the re-industrialisation of Australia’s outer suburbs and our regions, for our economy to be more self-sufficient, more economically resilient, more productive and more efficient. That’s fundamentally the kind of economic change and reform that research and development drives – new ideas not exported overseas but commercialised here in Australia. That’s what’s so exciting about this report. 

Of course, the Government will take its time in the normal way to think through this report. I as Minister every opportunity I get to work with the panel and the system more broadly to make sure that we’re working through this report in a way that delivers, what in my view will be, a decadal reform that sets Australia up for a Future Made in Australia really effectively. 

I want to welcome Robyn Denholm on, then we’ll take questions on the report ideally first and then we’ll come to – I’m sure you’ll have a few other questions. Thank you, Robyn. 

ROBYN DENHOLM, CHAIR OF STRATEGIC EXAMINATION OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PANEL: Thank you. Thank you, Minister. And thank you all for being here today. I’d like to really acknowledge the leadership that you’ve shown over this period of time and to acknowledge the fact that the report is a challenging report. The panel and I are incredibly proud to be here launching the Ambitious Australia report. This is the 12-month-long effort of data gathering, analysis and consultation – a lot of blood, sweat and tears in terms of the report. But it’s something that is very close to all of our hearts, and that is reinvigorating the R&D and innovation culture in this country and actually making sure that the system is fit for purpose for generations to come. 

It is the ultimate driver of economic growth in the country, and we think that there is no better time to be putting this in the public domain. It’s not just another report to sit on the shelf; it is a coordinated national blueprint for the next 40 years of our prosperity as a country. We have to be honest – Australia is at a crossroads. For decades we’ve relied on being the ‘lucky country’. We still are the lucky country, but it’s driven by resources and commodity exports and not the brain power of the country. 

But the warning lights are flashing and our total R&D investment has fallen to 1.69 per cent of GDP, well below that of our OECD average. Business R&D has also dropped by more than 35 per cent since 2008. And most concerningly, we now rank 105th in the world for economic complexity. 

So this – these decisions that we make now will determine the living standards of our children and our grandchildren for the next 40 years. And Australia doesn’t have an ideas problem; we actually have many companies and many individuals and scientists in this country that have brilliant ideas. We have an ambition problem. 

So we know what Australia can achieve when great ideas are backed by ambition. For example, Cochlear, who turned university research into a world-leading company globally in terms of how it’s changed how the world hears. CSL, who also transformed Australian research into lifesaving technologies and vaccines that have been [indistinct] again used around the world. ResMed, you can also talk about companies today like Harrison.ai and Vexev in the medical space. Alt.Leather, which actually helps with using natural-based products in terms of different areas. And also Canva, who today is leading the world in the way it communicates and the way we present things globally. 

So these companies prove that we can lead, but too often this pattern is that we discover and then the world commercialises what we discover. And so we lose the jobs, the industries and the wealth to ecosystems offshore. So to change this we’re proposing a six-step blueprint to shift from a resource-intensive country to an innovation-powered future. And so from our perspective greater focus and scale through a National Innovation Council that will actually report directly into Cabinet and the Prime Minister to coordinate our efforts and replace about 150 different programs with up to about 18 really strategic initiatives. 

And so, creating knowledge through foundational research by reversing the decline in competitive grants to protect the world-class research base that underpins our entire economy. And also in the RD&I space, business incentives to build the future industries by reforming the tax incentive and ensuring that we’re making it simpler and easier for aspiring companies to actually not only start companies here but scale them. And making sure that we have a start-up premium for those companies that really have ambition and for Australian advanced manufacturing. 

So also, investment and capital to fuel the innovation cycle by unlocking our $4 trillion of superannuation – which is the envy of the world – and unlocking that pool and expanding venture capital so firms can scale domestically and not have to go offshore. And building a workforce capability plan to empower people power by lifting PhD stipends to $50,000 and increasing industry mobility to actually stop the brain drain from our best talent. 

Also making sure that the Government is leading and actually empowering the sector by being an exemplar of buying Australian, and using the purchasing power that the Government has to buy Australian ideas and implementing an if not, why not procurement policy. 

So this is not just about spending more money; it’s actually about spending with purpose. Making sure that the data is clear that every dollar that we spend in this sector or across these areas results in $7 of economic gain to the country. And so if we act now, we can move from being consumers of global technology to really being leaders, creators and exporters of Australian innovation. 

So we are calling on the Government to back this report and to back many of the recommendations. My view is it is a bright future for Australia, particularly if we back our people. Thank you. 

AYRES: Thanks very much, Robyn. Now, happy to take questions on the report just for a few minutes. 

JOURNALIST: You talked about urgency in your opening spiel and you reflected on the methodical process that will be undertaken in responding to this review. You’ve had it on your desk since late last year. You haven’t released it with a response to any of the recommendations. When will we see actual responses, take-up, adoption of any of these recommendations? 

And to Ms Denholm, part of that extension of the lucky country quote is that it’s run by second-rate people who are benefitting from its luck – not a reflection on you, Minister. Are you confident that any of this will be taken up, and does it need to be taken up as a package or can it be taken up piecemeal? 

AYRES: Well, I might let Robyn go first on that. 

DENHOLM: Okay. So, firstly, I believe in our people. We believe in the brain power of Australia, and we think that this report helps the Government pave a path for the next 40 years of economic growth in the country. And, again, I go back 40 years – I’m relatively old – and so when I started working in 1985, you know, the employment of the country was at about 6.6 million people. Today or last year, at the end of last year, it was at 14.7 million people. And what’s happened over that period of time is that technology adoption, but it’s actually the growth in the country, the GDP growth, that actually drives employment opportunities for our people, but it also creates opportunities for businesses in the country. And backing Australian know-how and Australian brain power to me is what this report is all about. 

JOURNALIST: Sorry, I don’t think that quite answered the question: are you confident it will be implemented and can it be implemented piecemeal or does it have to be implemented as a package? 

DENHOLM: My view is it’s in the Government’s hands now to implement. I think the discussions that we’ve had about the recommendations are very fruitful. So, again, we’re not naïve enough to think that every single recommendation will be implemented. But our view is that it’s a comprehensive blueprint of what needs to be done across all different parts of the economy to get the R&D and innovation sectors moving. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, can I ask you a question? 

AYRES: Yeah, I’ll just deal with this one quickly first, and then I’ll come to you. This is a system-wide report. It’s in my view with the approach that the Government should take here is, firstly, the report conducted this enormous consultation process. I now want to see a public discussion about the report, the opportunity for elements of the research and development system and industry, many of whom are here today and in the building and happy to talk to you about all of these questions, along with the panel. 

I want to see a full expression of that report out there a discussion about that in the public. I want to hear from industry. We will take a careful, deliberate approach to what will be system-wide reforms. It’s not enough to just grab one element of the report and charge ahead and implement that. I want to consider the whole of the report. And that involves, as Robyn says on that question of duplication of effort, 160 programs across 13 Government departments. This is a big effort from the Government. We won’t shy away from the task. It’s fundamentally linked to our Future Made in Australia objectives, which are all about economic resilience but also good jobs in the outer suburbs and the regions. 

JOURNALIST: You’ve acknowledged that these are system-wide recommendations. One of those recommendations almost sounds glib, but it asks that the Government have an internationally competitive R&D fund, a research fund, foundational research funding. That I take to mean at least OECD average, which would be a tens of billions of dollar budget proposition. So can we – that’s been a known issue; lots of people have talked about that. Do we now say this has moved from aspirational goal to actual goal? 

AYRES: As I’ve carefully responded to the previous question, you know, we’re not going to grab one element of the report. I will just make this point gently on research and development funding more broadly. It is about private effort, Government effort and Government leadership and about the health of the whole system overall. It is not, it cannot and it should not be a discussion about just what Government does here. It’s about what all of us do as Australians to contribute to the system. And I’m looking forward to a vigorous debate about all of those questions over coming weeks and months. 

JOURNALIST: But aspiring to be average probably isn’t too much [indistinct]. 

AYRES: Well, I think I’ve answered the question. 

JOURNALIST: Minister – for a yes or no perhaps – the European Space Agency has offered to send our Australian of the Year, who is an astronaut who hasn’t been to space – they’ve offered to have her on the next mission for the International Space Agency – space station, sorry. Will the Australian Government accept that offer? 

AYRES: Well, Katherine Bennell-Pegg is an extraordinary Australian. She’s Australian of the Year. We’ll work through these issues carefully as a Government. I look forward to discussing them with many South Australians who made representations to me about this issue, and we’ll deal with it as you’d expect that the Government would. 

JOURNALIST: Do you think that the Government should be sending our Australian of the Year – who is an astronaut who hasn’t been to space – to actually get her to space? 

AYRES: It would be so exciting, but we will make these decisions in an orderly and careful way. And, you know, the Australian Government has supported the space agency and our space industry and the training of our aspirant astronauts with very deep commitments. And the space industry is important for our future, not just in dual use in strategic terms but also for all sorts of applications across industry. And it’s a bit of a demonstration of the kind of impact that Australian research and development and innovation can have. Thanks very much. We’ve got to go.