{"id":16622,"date":"2021-02-01T19:57:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T19:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationaus.com\/?p=15983"},"modified":"2021-02-01T19:57:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T19:57:55","slug":"husic-on-industrial-policy-in-the-post-covid-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/01\/husic-on-industrial-policy-in-the-post-covid-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Husic on industrial policy in the post-COVID era"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Labor leader Anthony <\/strong>Albanese gave his new Industry and Innovation spokesman Ed Husic his marching orders ahead of the shadow cabinet reshuffle last week, the heavy emphasis was on job creation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Industry portfolio in a nutshell. Building the policy frameworks and support structures that enable local industry growth. That means job creation now and seeking out a better understanding of emerging industries in order to lay a platform for job creation in the future.<\/p>\n

Governments have a role to play in steering industrial development to areas of strategic need or opportunity, and in fostering the growth of local industry through both capability development and capacity building.<\/p>\n

\"Manufacturing\"
Industrial boost: The post-COVID economy needs a government to invest in and coordinate emerging industries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This will involve \u201cpicking winners\u201d, Mr Husic says, outlining the important role for governments in making strategic investments and coordinating development efforts with the private sector and with the community.<\/p>\n

In his first industry interview since being given the portfolio, Mr Husic lampooned the Prime Minister Scott Morrison\u2019s view expressed last October that Australia did not need to create the next Silicon Valley, it just had t be good at adopting technology from overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to have a Prime Minister that takes a view that technology is an area where we can just support other people\u2019s ideas,\u201d told InnovationAus. \u201cForget that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the dopiest thing I have ever heard. It\u2019s a slap in the face to all the smart people in this country who believe that local talent, applied to local problems, can deliver local advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Coalition was starting to recognise the importance of laying bets in industries deemed to have strategic importance \u2013 the recent activity in the Space sector is an example \u2013 he said the lack of significant and coordinated investment in artificial intelligence was a glaring oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia up until this point has had a view that we don\u2019t pick winners. And in the meantime, we have seen a lot of other countries do the opposite,\u201d Mr Husic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they have done is to be very strategic in the areas where they can back [the local industry] investment and coordination across the private sector, the community and not-for-profits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think we need to apply ourselves a lot more in backing specific elements [of the economy]. And the biggest gap has been in the area of artificial intelligence. Because something like artificial intelligence is not just an economic thing, it is a strategic sector as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we are getting left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some governments at the state level \u201cget it\u201d \u2013 he singles out the NSW government\u2019s big push in recent months on R&D and building research linkages \u2013 but Australia still lacked a coordinated, over-arching national industrial policy.<\/p>\n

Ed Husic is well known to the tech industry, having previously held show parliamentary secretary and junior minister roles in innovation and the digital economy. He now wants to reengage with the tech sector, and to broaden its connections into the full breadth of the economy.<\/p>\n

The focus on \u201cjobs now and jobs in the future\u201d is not just about emerging industries. The focus must be also be in traditional industries and looking at how technology and emerging industries can be applied to our traditional sectors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis is something that I thought about deeply in my previous role [as shadow minister for] Agriculture and Resources \u2013 so AgTech and MiningTech were areas I was already limbering up to focus on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have very much valued my engagement with people in the tech sector, and I am looking forward to a broader remit now across all of Industry and seeing how we can get people working together again and supporting the growth in jobs now and into the future \u2013 in both traditional industries, and emerging ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first 100 days in the new role will be focused on getting out and talking to people.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnergy, enthusiasm, passion and belief. These are the things that from my own perspective I want to bring to the role,\u201d Mr Husic said. \u201cAnd I want to team up with like-minded people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reshuffle was not without strangeness. Anthony Albanese\u2019 decision to carve Science out of the Industry portfolio is a head-scratcher.<\/p>\n

Deputy Opposition Richard Marles is Labor\u2019s new Science spokesman, in addition to his role in post-COVID job creation as shadow minister for Reconstruction, Employment, Skills and Small Business.<\/p>\n

Mr Marles, whose Corio electorate in Victoria takes in the city of Geelong, has a keen interest in science, and set up the Parliamentary Friends of Science in 2012 as co-chair with the current Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews.<\/p>\n

But removing science from the core portfolio for industrial development policy is unusual, even if Geelong is the poster-child city in transition with stand-out entrepreneurs, startups and innovators \u2013 particularly in advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Ed Husic says he and Mr Marles will work closely together, not just on the science side of the portfolio, but in the jobs creation policies and skills for the post COVID period.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard and I have spokes at length about these issues in the past. There has to be a synthesis of science, research and development, innovation and industry \u2013 so we do need to be working together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The post Husic on industrial policy in the post-COVID era<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on InnovationAus<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Labor leader Anthony Albanese gave his new Industry and Innovation spokesman Ed Husic his marching orders ahead of the shadow cabinet reshuffle last week, the heavy emphasis was on job creation. That\u2019s the Industry portfolio in a nutshell. Building the policy frameworks and support structures that enable local industry growth. That means job creation…<\/p>\n

The post Husic on industrial policy in the post-COVID era<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1757,1931,3436,1884,1892,3435,392,3265,553,3437],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16707,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16622\/revisions\/16707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}