Tim Ayres has made his R&D pitch clear last week in an address to the true believers.
Speaking at the John Curtin Research Centre, the Industry Minister claimed the mantle of nation-builders for Labor over three generations. From the Curtin Government in WWII, to Bob Hawke and onto the present it was Labor that led to ensure, “Australia's industrial and scientific infrastructure kept pace with a changing world.”
Senator Ayres praised John Dedman, who led the Curtin Government’s WWII manufacturing effort. And he applauded Bob Hawke who, “knew then, as we know today, that national success required clear priorities and focus, a ‘balance between pure and applied research’, and the translation of R&D into industrial technologies and applications. “
And he claimed their work as the basis for the “reindustrialisation” of Australia. In what reads like an endorsement of Robyn Denholm and colleagues’ plan for R&D, Senator Ayres suggested, “it requires a Dedman-like discipline and determination to marshal national resources, collaborate with international partners and the private sector, and concentrate Australia’s scientific and R&D capabilities – which are excellent – on our national industrial and strategic objectives.”
And from COVID to the new oil shock, the times suit his sell. Minister Ayres argued, “industrial policy is security policy. Security is about deterrence – but it’s also about the economic resilience and productive capacity Australia needs to withstand global shocks. Future Made in Australia is the Albanese Government’s industrial policy – the largest pro-manufacturing policy in Australia’s history – because the times demand nothing less.”
And he blamed Coalition Governments for the national vandalism of de-industrialisation. They “failed to imagine that market concentration, overcapacity and unfair subsidies overseas, great power competition and trade volatility could threaten Australia’s economic and social security.”
Senator Ayres did not endorse the Denholm report in detail but he backed government-led R&D strategy, “my job is to drive reindustrialisation, strategic alignment and a more constructive sense of economic nationalism across Australia's industrial and scientific base in the national interest. That's how Australians have met national challenges before.”