Interview on ABC Canberra Mornings

HOST, SASKIA MABIN: You're listening to Mornings, and joining us is the Federal Industry Minister, Tim Ayres. Hello and thank you very much for your time today. 

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Saskia, G'day. Really good to talk to you and to your listeners. 

HOST: Now we've been hearing in the news about this partnership just announced between our science agency CSIRO and Moderna. Has this come about because, or at least in part, because of the death of the Russian lab technician and the circumstances around that seem very mysterious. Is this a direct response to that? 

AYRES: Well, I think that underscores how important it is that Australia is prepared for future pandemic events. But this work well and truly pre-dated that development late last week, which obviously we are watching and our partners are watching closely. This builds on the partnership that the Albanese Government and Victorian Governments negotiated with Moderna to base this massive MRNA vaccine facility here in Melbourne.  

That is a really important capability for Australia to have. It can produce 100 million vaccines every year. Australia has guaranteed offtake there. It will end up employing directly and indirectly around 1000 high-quality Australian jobs. What we're announcing today is a partnership that builds on that, bringing the CSIRO's unique science capabilities in disease, and disease prevention, and disease preparedness, to work with Moderna to bring Australian science and Moderna's IP together to deliver more resilience and more capability. 

HOST: So, I guess the way that is manifested, is that more vaccines? Is that the result of this partnership? 

AYRES: Well, of course underneath that, is all of that basic scientific research and applied scientific research using the IP that's been developed here at the CSIRO. I'm on the Clayton Campus now. Together with Moderna's capability, this is a framework that means we’ll accelerate that work together. So, the building blocks have been in place now for some time. That facility is a fantastic facility for Australia.  

It's here because of the Albanese Government's commitment to it, and its support, and partnership here with the Victorian Government to mean that we're ready to respond to events as they come. We are – one of the themes of this year's budget was resilience – making sure that industrial and scientific terms, but also disease preparedness terms, you can't predict the future, but we can make sure that we're ready for whatever comes. 

HOST: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of the conversations that have been had about the Centre for Disease Control, the CDC, and the similar aims that are trying to be achieved there. Moderna is a pharmaceutical company, it's a private company. Who would own the findings of this partnership? 

AYRES: Well, the framework manages how those discussions will happen. And each of these partnerships are negotiated tightly, managing what is IP owned by the CISRO, managing those equities really carefully, but delivering a public policy response. It's an important capability that we brought to Australia. Moderna hasn't built this facility here by accident. They built it because the Albanese Government has made sure, in a commercial partnership with Victoria's Government too, that the manufacturing facility is located here. That's really important for future resilience.  

Remember during the COVID period, how Australia made a contribution to COVID vaccine development, to modelling the COVID virus, to identifying and our research capacity? I was at the Doherty Institute last night, we were absolutely foundational here in Australia, in the way that the world scientists understood the disease and understood the virus. But of course, we relied upon international partners to deliver and manufacture vaccines. The Moderna facility here means that Australia has the capacity to onshore-manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale. And that's really important for keeping Australians safe in the future. That's what the Albanese Government's Future Made in Australia agenda is all about, making sure that we're making more things here that matter for our future resilience. And it does mean that we're delivering good jobs in the process and it's contributing to our economic growth, our economic development and Australia's productivity. 

HOST: Yes, speaking of jobs, the CSIRO has faced huge job cuts this year. We've talked a lot about that because that's got a huge impact on Canberrans. Does this mean more jobs for the CSIRO? 

AYRES: Well, the CSIRO has of course, been going through a process of making sure that its research programs meet the research priorities. For the Government's part, we have been backing the CSIRO with additional funding to make sure that the CSIRO has stable funding going well into the years ahead. So, we spend about a billion dollars every year on the CSIRO. There's an additional $387 million over the forwards to make sure that there are no funding cuts for the CISRO. And the job of the CSIRO leadership is to make sure, working with their staff and the union and scientists and all of their science programs, that their science programs are fit for purpose and meet the moment in terms of Australia's science requirements. 

HOST: So, just to be clear, this partnership that's been announced between Moderna and the CSIRO, it doesn't actually change anything about the job cuts that have already been announced? 

AYRES: No, no, this is all about deploying the CSIRO's unique world-leading capability here together with Moderna and providing a really effective framework for accelerating that cooperation. 

HOST: Okay, yeah. But the job cuts will still proceed as has already been announced. There's no new announcement there.

AYRES: No. There's no funding cuts, no budget cuts for the CISRO. It is very well-funded and we have additionally provided on top of that billion dollars every year, an additional $387 million through the MYEFO and Budget processes to support the CSIRO science and the CSIRO scientists. 

HOST: How long will this partnership last between Moderna and the CSIRO? 

AYRES: Well, it's a five-year partnership and, of course, I expect at the end of five years the partnership would be upgraded and modernised. There will be a series of programs will have been run under the banner of that framework. So, this is a platform for future cooperation, to make sure that we accelerate that, and to deliver real progress here in Australia. Australia's unique science capability in disease control, our IP, the CSIRO's amazing scientific research capability, working together with Moderna, this extraordinary modern MRNA vaccine manufacturing facility, an Australian first, to make sure that we're delivering future resilience and future capability, so that we can respond to challenges over time. 

HOST: Yeah. Minister Ayres, thank you very much for your time today. 

AYRES: Thanks Saskia.