Sky News

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – Sky News with Laura Jayes
Tuesday 17 November 2015

SUBJECTS –Paris Attacks, Bill Ferris, startups, South Australia;

Laura Jayes: Minister, thanks so much for your time. Looking at the events of Paris in the last couple of days, it seems like this has been close to home for a lot of people. Your niece, as I understand it, was only 400 meters away from the Bataclan Theatre.

Christopher Pyne: Yes, that’s right Laura. It’s amazing how close to home these stories can come so when this was- these events were unfolding, my sister contacted me to let me know that my niece who has been in Paris for some months was actually holed up 400 meters away from the Bataclan Theatre in a restaurant and was in lockdown with police and armoured personal swarming all over that part of Paris. Fortunately she has a phone call from my niece and a photograph which she shared with us so that we knew that she was safe. But obviously her story has a very happy ending, not so much for the victims of the 132- the 132 victims of these terrorist attacks and of course their family and friends. But it is fascinating how, on the other side of the world you can still be affected by something that occurred in Paris in a very personal sense.

Laura Jayes: Yeah, it’s amazing that only one Australian was quite seriously injured as well. Look, there’s a lot of ramifications from the events in Paris. The former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has written today that he thinks that Australia should seriously consider putting Special Forces into Syria. Do you agree with that?

Christopher Pyne: Well, Laura, the National Security Committee of the Cabinet and the Cabinet area always considering military involvement around the world and we have a substantial involvement in the Middle East at the moment, FAA team(*) fighters, refuelers and several personal are in the Middle East as part of the operations to remove the threat of Daesh from our world. Putting boots on the ground is a massive change, a massive step. It’s something that would need to be very, very carefully considered. But the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, I think, has made very sensible suggestions which is that this needs to have a political response, a political finality about the ending of the Daesh cult, as well as a military one, as well as a humanitarian one. So, at this stage, I don’t think the Government has any plans at all to put boots on the ground.

Laura Jayes: Okay Minister. If I could change tack now, earlier today you did introduce us to the new chair of Innovation Australia. He has suggested perhaps abolishing some of these laws in Australia that punish failure. Are you open to that?

Christopher Pyne: Well, today we announced that Bill Ferris, the Head of CHAMP Equity, he’s one of the great veterans of venture capital in Australia. Started his first venture capital business in 1970, 45 years ago. He is a titan of the sector, very well-known and very well respected, will be the chairman of Innovation Australia. And Innovation has moved very much to the centre of the stage, not part of the periphery of economic policy anymore which is very exciting. We will have a National Innovation and Science Agenda in December and Bill Ferris has been advising us on that. It’ll be many faceted, it’ll deal with things like skills and talents, commercializing research, the Government as an exemplar and also raising capital and as part of that last theme, raising capital, we obviously want to clear away hurdles that are making our economic decision makers risk averse. That could be around the areas of capital gains tax, income tax, bankruptcy, the dealing of the depreciation of intangible assets, being able to claim tax losses, there’s lots we can do in the tax area which will make quite a substantial difference to the way people approach business but won’t cost the taxpayer’s money but will be quite transformative and the full package of those we’ll be seeing in December.

Laura Jayes: What about the sharing economy? It seems we have this ridiculous situation with companies like Uber in particular where different state jurisdictions have different rules. In New South Wales we’ve seen, even, I think 40 charges being laid against drivers of Uber, that’s no way to encourage startups in Australia. So, what’s the Federal Government going to do about that?

Christopher Pyne: Well, the market is moving faster than the regulators. That’s comes with the territory in terms of innovation and creativity because people are always finding new ways to start businesses and the regulators are often reacting rather than in front of the market. That’s quite unavoidable. But state and territory governments obviously have a major role to play in how we regulate the market and we don’t want regulation and red tape to get in the way of growing the economy, of jobs and growth. We also have to protect the consumer, we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So, it is a delicate balancing act and we are navigating those particular issues as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda but I prefer to focus on the things that the Commonwealth Government can do, rather than trying to change the states and territories. In my previous role as the Minister for Education, I learned that working with the states and territories is a good idea but trying to tell them how to run their own governments is a bad idea.

Laura Jayes: You point out that Israel is a venture capital government. Are you signalling that the Turnbull Government is willing to be a bit riskier in that effort?

Christopher Pyne: Well, we want to enable risk, we want to commercialize research. We want to make it attractive for mum and dad investors, for business, for large companies, for existing businesses, to be commercializing research and engaging in investments that will help drive our economy. Israel is obviously a stand-out economy in terms of being open to capital raising, venture capital, start-ups, incubators, accelerators, et cetera that I think we can do here. We have a very sophisticated economy, a smart workforce. We want to be able to continue to be a high-wage, real safety net economy. And I think we can do that with a Prime Minister who is very energized by the innovation economy. And I think we can change the way Australians with this agenda in December, but it’ll take five to ten years, really, to alter the culture to be anything like that of Israel because the Israeli culture wasn’t changed overnight, either.

Laura Jayes: The Israeli culture is- certainly isn’t perfect as well – it has huge productivity problems. But we won’t go into that. Can I talk about the Government talking a lot about commercialization of research? You mentioned before that in your previous role as Education Minister you looked at certain things about dealing with the states. But on a separate note to that, why hasn’t the Government looked at this in past- in the past, in the recent past, when it comes to commercialization of research because it would seem that we’re a bit behind in the eight ball in that, and is that another cultural shift? Is that going to be something that happens over time in universities?

Christopher Pyne: I think, Laura, we’ve been timid in biting the bullet about commercializing research at university or at our institutes around Australia. We have left it largely to the university sector, and unfortunately, while we have very high quality research – the sixth highest quality in the OECD – and pockets, of course, of the best quality in research in the world, otherwise you wouldn’t win Nobel Prizes - we have been the worst in the OECD at commercializing that research. Now, if we’re going to go to all that effort …

Laura Jayes: And so they’ve been too heavily, and there’s been too much of that heavy emphasis, do you think, on published work in obscure journals?

Christopher Pyne: … well, I think there’s been not enough emphasis on commercializing the research of our great researchers. And we should be creating jobs and growth here in Australia – in the high-tech industries, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, the health sector in general – there’s so much wecould be doing to create jobs and growth here in Australia. And, to do that, the Government’s going to have to drive a lot of that research commercialization agenda and we’ll be therefore looking, of course looking, at how we hand out the $9.7 billion of taxpayer money in the research area. Because we want to make it work for the taxpayers, and the taxpayers deserve, and expect, a better return than being lowest in the OECD in the commercialization of research. Obviously, what we’ve been doing in the past hasn’t been enough and we want to be open to new ideas. And we have a Prime Minister who’s very open to new ideas and I think the public are ready for a sophisticated debate about the future of the new economy.

Laura Jayes: Minister, what you’re talking about is so important for Australia, but in particular, South Australia. So let me, just finally, ask you about your plans for your state. The State Government - it’s been pointed out to me – is the largest employer in the state. It is employs one-third of the workforce. It also has energy producing problems, only running at about 60 per cent capacity at the moment. So what are your big ideas to solve some of these key problems?

Christopher Pyne: Well, the State Government in South Australia need to alter much of their thinking around how to drive the South Australian economy. Government is not the solution in South Australia. Taxes are too high, regulation is too deep, the red tape that stops development sends a message to the world that we are not pro-development. And I’ve been working with the Government, with Jay Weatherill in particular, and Tom Koutsantonis, the Treasurer, to try and deliver the kinds of projects that I think will help drive the economy. But at the end of the day, the South Australian Government needs to take a radical approach to taking the shackles off business in South Australia and allowing business to develop and to grow. There’s tremendous opportunities in South Australia – in agriculture, in mining, in high-tech and advanced manufacturing, in the university sector, international students. There is great opportunity for exports and yet we seem to be going backwards, not forwards. What we need, though, is an optimistic, future-looking agenda – an agenda around jobs and growth, and removing the shackles on business, and letting people to reap- to reach their full potential. And I think we’re getting to that point in the South Australian polity of debating the role of Government and the role of business. And I hope it’ll be one of being open to reform and to change rather than seeing government as a solution to problems.

Laura Jayes: Now, I think that innovation state will be highly anticipated. Minister Pyne, thanks so much for your time.

Christopher Pyne: It’s a pleasure, thank you Laura.

[ENDS]