26 June 2009

Public Sphere 2:

Earlier this week I presented at Senator Kate Lundy's Public Sphere event, covering "Government 2.0: Policy and Practice".

Here is a video of my presentation:

Public Sphere: Government 2.0 - John Haining from Kate Lundy on Vimeo.

And the slides from Slideshare


Feedback in the comments is most welcome (I know about the broken Transparency v Trust framework!).

If you want to participate further in this area, you can visit the Senator's wiki, in which Senator Lundy's adviser, Pia Waugh is coordinating a briefing paper on this area that will be shared with the National Government 2.0 Taskforce.

13 May 2009

Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century

Senator Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research has released the long-awaited response to the Cutler Report, Venturous Australia.

The report, entitled Powering Ideas, An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century, provides some illumination as to the government's thinking in this area. For instance:

Innovation is the key to making Australia more productive and more competitive. It is the key to answering the challenge of climate change, the challenge of national security, the age-old challenges of disease and want. It is the key to creating a future that is better than the past.

Investing in innovation is also one of the most effective ways we can cushion Australia against the effects of the global downturn and accelerate recovery. It will simultaneously keep people in work today and generate jobs for the future.

(from the Executive Summary)

I'll post analysis of the White Paper over the coming weeks. We've already started analysing the planned R&D tax credit over at MJA, have a look at the following articles:

You can download the White Paper from the Innovation Review website (PDF).

30 April 2009

Yes, it's politics, but this is fascinating

In response to the relative silence from the industry department as part of the economic stimulus packages, Senator Abetz has penned a fairly detailed criticism of the federal government's approach and its impact on business. (In case the political pointscoring about Pacific Brands and Qantas stops you from getting to his planned action points, I have presented them below).

Apparently the industry department was not included in the stimulus planning


Surely, if you wanted to protect or create jobs, like in the manufacturing sector which has been worst hit with more than 44,000 jobs lost since Labor was elected (a 4.2 per cent decline), you would talk to the Industry and Small Business Department for their ideas?


But no. As revealed in a recent answer I received from Senate Estimates, the first the Industry Department knew of the detail of the $42 billion stimulus was when it was publicly announced - which might help explain why Australia is the only country in the developed world not to include incentives for business to invest in new research and development in its stimulus packages.


Senator Abetz's recommended action plan


So what should the Government be doing to try and minimise job losses in the face of the Rudd Recession?


Well firstly, it should adopt Mr Turnbull's six-point small business action plan, which will provide real immediate assistance for minimum cost - and genuinely protect jobs.


Secondly, the Government needs to take responsibility for the job cuts - as a Prime Minster once famously said, "the buck stops with me".


Thirdly, the Government needs to invest not in articificially propping up GDP, but in supporting the productive capacity of business - especially small business - through things like encouraging investment in R&D, even at this tough time.


And fourthly - and most importantly - the Government needs to facilitate the right economic conditions for business to prosper and employ people; which means, not talking down the economy in order to try and trash the economic legacy of your predecessors.



Yes, it's politics. Yes there's pointscoring. But, if this is the reality of the situation it is very sad to me. Putting on my pessimist's hat, if the industry and small business departments have not had an impact thus far, what hope do we have that this will change?

Wearing my Optimist's hat, the stimulus activity to date has been largely about consumption rather than investment, and that the next round of activity will be about encouraging productivity and knowledge jobs in the economy.

The realist in me says that the ALP positions itself as the party for Working Families and the Liberal Party as the "party" for Business, so unless you can join the dots and show how lower investment in R&D and knowledge jobs affects Working Families you don't have much chance of getting on the radar. Well, unless you're about to go broke.

Just another reason why party politics can be so hollow.

Let me know what you anticipate in the budget by posting a comment on this article.

28 April 2009

Exellent Progress on US National Innovation System...our turn soon!

Professor Joshua Gans has written an excellent piece on President Obama's announcements about the US National Innovation System (which includes making their R&D tax credits a permanent feature) over on the economics.com.au site.

I am curious as to what signals the Australian Innovation System Review process, now formally a part of the budget, will take from this lead in terms of targets and priorities. I suspect that the environmental and sustainability challenge will be taken up in earnest by other parts of government, but the tenor of Venturous Australia was change, enunciating priorities, and goals and investment for the future.

This is the time for counter-cyclical stimulus and innovation (as an economic public and private system) is one of the best places to invest.

24 April 2009

Green Car Innovation Fund Open for Applications

As promised, the government has opened the Green Car Innovation Fund in April. From today, applications can be made by motor vehicle producers for grants of $5 million or more and other applicants will be able to apply for grants of $100,000 or more. Funding will flow from 1 July 2009.

Despite receiving feedback that argued this approach, the grants will be on the basis of one government dollar to three applicant dollars.

Information sessions will be held in May to brief applicants, and Application Forms, guidelines and further details are available on the AusIndustry website.