Sunrise

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

Interview - Channel 7, Sunrise
8 December 2015

SUBJECT: National Innovation and Science Agenda.

David Koch: Malcolm Turnbull's popularity has slipped in the latest Newspoll. In the preferred PM stakes Mr Turnbull has fallen four points- still got 60 per cent though. It comes on the back of political infighting over the defection of Ian Macfarlane to the Nationals and questions about the appointment of Mal Brough to the ministry. But Mr Turnbull still has a massive lead over Bill Shorten, whose popularity has dropped to a record low for a Labor leader of just 14 per cent.

Innovation Minister Christopher Pyne joins us this morning. Minister thanks for joining us. Does Mr Turnbull's slip as preferred PM mean the honeymoon period is over for voters or it’s just a bit of a blip? He’s still pretty high.

Christopher Pyne: Well David I think I’d take 60-14, any day of the week. Even I think Port Adelaide could win with 60-14.

David Koch: Gee [laughs]. Let's just declare Christopher Pyne is an Adelaide Crows supporter too. So okay. Alright, I’ll let you get away with that one. Now you and the Prime Minister have launched your billion dollar Innovation Statement. How’s this program going to create the jobs of the future?

Christopher Pyne: Well, it's a fantastic announcement yesterday, David. $1.1 billion to supercharge innovation and science at the center of the economy. We’ve moved beyond the mining boom as you would know. We’ll always have agriculture, education services, tourism and financial services, but we need to supercharge that part of the economy where the jobs are going to be in the future, particularly for young people.

So we’re going to address issues around raising capital, the culture in Australia, talents and skills, so more support for science, technology, engineering and maths. Visa changes to bring entrepreneurs to Australia, the research collaborations with industry is probably one of the largest parts of the package and finally how the Government operates itself as an exemplar with its large procurement dollar.

David Koch: Yeah, CSIRO is going to get $100 million boost. It suffered a cut in the 2014 budget. Is science and medicine so important that that's a big focus for you?

Christopher Pyne: Well, we are world leaders when it comes to buying medical research. So we’re going to establish a biomedical translation fund which will take great research and support it with venture capital investments to supercharge that and create the jobs of the future. And of course CSIRO is one of the world's leaders in terms of industrial and agricultural research, things like the WI-FI that they created has been earning them dollars. We’re going to let them keep the profits they’ve made from some of their research commercialization, but then add to that by creating a CSIRO innovation fund, about $200 million. This is all about creating jobs and creating growth in the economy.

David Koch: Yeah, the knowledge industry like Port Adelaide’s joint venture with UniSA into the masters of sport science…

Christopher Pyne: Absolutely…

David Koch: … cutting edge.

Christopher Pyne: That’s right. Touché.

David Koch: Yeah, 15-all.

Christopher Pyne: [Laughs]

David Koch: Now Treasurer Scott Morrison admits cuts will be needed in the budget to fund these so who will lose out?

Christopher Pyne: Well, next week MYEFO will be handed down and you’ll see the revenue and spending across government…

David Koch: Just to translate, that's the mid year…

Christopher Pyne: Economic forecast, yeah.

David Koch: On the budget. Yep.

Christopher Pyne: And that will tell us where we’re up to with the budget. And in there you’ll see the whole of government savings that have been applied to this particular package. But there are no savings measures in research and development as part of this announcement because we didn't want to be seen to be obviously robbing Peter to pay Paul, if we’re going to put this investment into innovation and science we wanted to do it in a full throated positive way.

David Koch: Alright, Christopher Pyne, see you at the showdown. Thank you for that.

Christopher Pyne: Yes indeed.

[Ends]