Recommendations

Summary Of Recommendations

The recommendations contained in this report are designed to build long-term advantage for Australia as a Knowledge Nation. They cannot be a quick fix. The Taskforce understands that the resources and priorities of governments change from year to year and therefore that the long term investment we envisage will need to be adopted as a permanent priority for every Federal Government. The important factor is the durable commitment and demonstrable progress.

What is to be done?

In the face of a changing world economy where knowledge is paramount, Australia is facing a national crisis.

The only way forward is for Australia to become a courageous and effective Knowledge Nation in which everyone participates and shares the benefits.

Government leadership and commitment

Becoming an effective Knowledge Nation requires aggressive and sustained leadership from the Commonwealth Government, and particularly the Prime Minister, to create a national strategy and change the culture.

Recommendation 1

The Prime Minister must take the lead in advocating Australia as a Knowledge Nation, domestically and abroad, acting as a catalyst to change the culture to that of a Knowledge Nation. The Prime Minister should:

	call a Knowledge Nation Summit to begin the task of breaking down isolation and creating linkages between key players;
	outline a specific national strategy with specific priority industries and supporting a policy framework in education training and research to propel those industries into global leadership;
	conduct an international campaign to change the world’s image of Australia to that of a Knowledge Nation; and
	report annually to the Parliament on progress in creating a Knowledge Nation.

Create an inventory of existing knowledge resources (cadastre) as the starting point for making connections and utilising Australia’s full potential

While in some ways Australia is already on a path to becoming a Knowledge Nation, we are a disconnected and under-performing one. We must have a clear picture of our resources and optimise their use.

Recommendation 2

The Commonwealth should coordinate with the States and major research organisations the development of a comprehensive and broadly available inventory (cadastre) of Australia’s resources and knowledge capacity, as a basis for action and policy formulation. The information gathered must be accessible to all Australians.

Increasing and targeting R&D

Government should be in the business of determining priority industries; it should not be in the business of trying to pick winning companies. But fear of ‘picking winners’ should not be allowed to constrain Australia from developing a national investment strategy. Such a strategy would build on areas of strengths in existing globally leading industries (including those in the resources and manufacturing sectors) and potential strengths in emerging industries (including ICT, environmental management, and biotechnology and medical research). Government would work with them to provide a critical mass of infrastructure and R&D incentives and to develop management expertise and a skilled workforce.

Recommendation 3

Australia should increase its public and private sector R&D performance by:

	Doubling Australia’s overall R&D as a percentage of GDP by 2010, bringing Australia to the top of the OECD tables.
	Targeting R&D incentives and action agendas to key Knowledge Nation industries, including the industries with currently globally competitive positions such as wool, tourism, wine, iron ore, coal and beef; established potential growth industries such as education, health and medical research; and emerging industries such as ICT, environmental management and biotechnology. Additional areas for national effort should be decided through a national foresight process that brings together experts from across society to identify opportunities for economic improvement.
	Using the nation’s investment promotion program and other measures to expand our productive capacities in elaborately transformed manufactures (ETMs) and foster the linkages that will accelerate the rate Australia develops new products, forms new companies and commercialises technology.
	Drawing on existing university and non-university research bodies to build three national institutions of global standing in the three key emerging sectors of ICT, environmental management and biotechnology.
	Creating an Institute for Manufacturing as a centre of excellence for industry research and development.
	Introducing additional R&D concessions for businesses in selected sectors that conduct research in conjunction with public sector research bodies and universities.
	Promoting the core enabling disciplines within the fields of science, engineering, the social sciences and the humanities, in school and higher education.
	Increasing support for the CRC program while ensuring rigorous selection processes for the establishment of new CRCs. This should include the creation of a number of additional CRCs in ICT, environmental management and biotechnology.
	Significantly increasing funding to public sector research bodies, including the CSIRO, AIMS, the NHMRC, the ARC, the Bureau of Meteorology, ANSTO, DSTO and others.
	Using the Australian Defence Force’s acquisition program to support Australia’s high-technology industry base and encourage research and development of leading-edge technologies.

Commercialising Australian R&D

Australia needs to acknowledge that we are competing with other nations that have tax and other incentives for the commercialisation of research in emerging industries.

Unless Australia addresses the commercialisation issue, we will fail to maximise the benefits from public and private investment in research through CRCs, early stage companies, incubators, institutes, universities and other bodies.

We must also change Australia’s culture to ensure greater recognition of the importance of prudent risk taking and entrepreneurial activity in commercialising Australia’s world-leading research.

Recommendation 4

The Commonwealth Government should undertake a thorough review of the impediments to the commercialisation of Australian research, in targeted emerging industries. This strategy should:

	benchmark Australia against other successful Knowledge Nations, such as Ireland, Israel, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States; and
	recommend tax changes and other financial incentives that will encourage greater commercialisation (see also Recommendations 3, 5, 6 and 7).

Key industries 1: Information and communications technology

Due to policy failures, Australia is not a pace setter and leader in ICT; we are a user and follower. Our goal must be to be both a high user of new technologies and a creator of them.

Every ICT policy we adopt must incorporate the principle of universal access. Australia must close the digital divide.

ICT is embedded in almost every industry and activity of a Knowledge Nation. Creating high-level capacity in ICT infrastructure and skills is an essential prerequisite to modernising Australia’s education, health and other services, strengthening existing manufacturing industries and creating new industries.

Recommendation 5

The Commonwealth should make it an urgent national priority that all Australian households and businesses have the option of access to digital broadband. This could be done by:

	Using the array of Commonwealth power, capacity and influence to expand broadband access. This will include improving the current regulatory arrangements and maintaining majority government ownership of Telstra.
	Upgrading the current standard telephone service, which mandates minimum levels of voice telephony service, to a standard communications service that mandates minimum levels of data transmission.
	Improving the competitive and regulatory environment to ensure fair access to the Customer Access Network and to ensure that broadband networks are open, digitised and inter-connectable as soon as possible.
	Providing incentives, including investing in broadband networks, for the take up of broadband technology.
	Making government a leader in the use of high broadband technology, including innovative online government services.
	Ensuring that all Australians, particularly those in regional areas, have the opportunity to access fixed price untimed calls nationwide, for both voice telephony and data services.
	Removing the existing restrictive and failed datacasting regime and opening up a new digital spectrum to the exciting, potential new services of the future.
	Building a national strategy around the growth and development of Australia’s software and digital content sector, including a comprehensive capability inventory.
	Using improved government procurement policies to encourage the further development of an Australian ICT industry.
	Closing the digital divide by using community and regionally based strategies to improve skill levels and assure affordable Internet access.

Key industries 2: Making Australia a world leader in biotechnology

Australia lacks a national policy that promotes research, development and commercialisation in the life sciences. We must build on our strengths in medical research to become a world leader in biotechnology.

Recommendation 6

The Commonwealth must build on Australia’s strengths in medical research by adopting a goal of making Australia a world leader in biotechnological research, development and commercialisation by 2010. This will require:

	A meeting of the nation’s biotechnology experts to determine a coordinated National Biotechnology Strategy for the development of the industry in Australia as a priority.
	Restructuring of NHMRC and ARC grants to allow for large-scale, biotechnology projects of national significance.
	Funding an Australian Genome Project and a National Proteomics Project to concentrate research effort and build on existing Australian strengths.
	Developing three life science research institutes of undisputed global standing. One of these may be designated a National Life Sciences Centre. All three should be built on the existing (and largely rusting) institutional base.
	Creating a network of biotechnology business incubators.
	Creating a biotechnology industry-wide information Internet portal — or a ‘BioInfoHub’.
	Establishing a National Biotechnology Advisory Committee headed by a chairperson of global standing in the industry, serviced by an Office of Biotechnology within the relevant agency in Canberra.
	A detailed review of the impact of the tax system on biotechnology start-up companies and foreign investment.
	Specific adjustments to national immigration policies to encourage global-leading biotechnologists to come to Australia and expatriate Australian leaders to return.
	Developing a National Code of Ethical Practice for the Australian biotechnology industry.

Key industries 3: The environment as a challenge and opportunity

If we use our Knowledge Nation capacity in a focused way, we can improve Australia’s calamitous environmental situation and create a potentially huge export industry in environmental management products and services, particularly in the areas of land care, water and waste management, and energy efficiency.

Recommendation 7

That the Commonwealth initiate a massive campaign, in conjunction with the States and all major research organisations, to start a ten-year program to tackle the problems of salinity, land degradation and acidification of soils, polluted rivers and sea coasts, land clearing and deforestation, loss of species diversity, and to implement a strategy to expand Australia’s environmental management industry, for which we already have a high-level capacity. Elements in this strategy should include:

	a goal of obtaining a significant proportion of the global market of environmental management goods and services by the year 2010;
	development of a specific set of quantitative metrics and milestones for the year 2010 and each year beforehand to monitor success and highlight failures as the program unfolds;
	a targeted environmental management R&D program, including support to improve the sustainability performance of industries that have traditionally been both environmentally damaging and global leaders, and to generate new export industries from the expertise developed in doing so;
	the creation of environmental management CRCs, innovation investment funds and venture funds leading to the development of significant indigenous industries in environmental management;
	an environmental technology and services export program;
	renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives;
	specific adjustments to national immigration policies to encourage environmental scientists and management professionals who are global leaders to migrate to Australia and the return of expatriate Australian leaders; and
	a campaign to promote understanding of the process of ‘dematerialisation’ in industry and the community.

Key Industries 4: An education export industry

Online education has moved beyond the realm of risky dot. com ventures into reality. Unless Australia establishes a leading online education industry that emphasises quality, millions of dollars and thousands of jobs for Australians will be lost overseas.

Recommendation 8

Australia must aim to become a world leader in online education at all levels within the next few years, winning at least 10 per cent global market share of revenue. Achieving this will require:

	ensuring that courses are as good as, if not better than, those offered in traditional formats;
	front investment to create quality online courses and retrain teachers and academics in their effective use;
	developing a leading online education content industry and encouraging the industry to adopt leading-edge methods of online marketing and distribution to attract students;
	research into the most effective online teaching, user interface requirements and online customer service infrastructure;
	improving to necessary infrastructure, including access to affordable bandwidth (particularly in regional Australia), adequate computer backbones and digitised libraries;
	financial incentives for students to study online, the availability of widespread public information on courses, and simple ‘one stop shop’ enrolment processes; and
	ensuring that individual academics, universities, TAFE colleges and private vocational education providers benefit from the creation of intellectual property.

Key industries 5: A medical export industry

Like education, the health care sector has significant export potential. Developed carefully in parallel with a strong universal health care system, this industry can generate revenue to improve health care for all Australians and create thousands of well-paid jobs.

Recommendation 9

Australia should develop and implement a strategy to make Australia a leading provider of health services to the AsiaPacific region. This strategy should include:

	developing and marketing medical, paramedical and nursing training programs for the international market, utilising all the latest education tools including online learning;
	funding and administrative support for the development of super-speciality centres of excellence in Australia, which are directed at the international market as well as the Australian market;
	supporting areas of Australian strength in medical research, such as tropical medicine;
	further developing the nation’s telehealth capacity and marketing these services internationally; and
	establishing relationships with surrounding countries so that Australia can sell complex medical treatment for their populations, enabling the nation to lock into a leadership position in the region in those areas in which it is world competitive.

A Year 12 school retention target

There is a mistaken view that creating a Knowledge Nation is only about assisting universities and scientists. A Knowledge Nation is about raising the standard of education at every level, and providing linkages with all aspects of Australian life. As a starting point, we must set ambitious targets for increasing school retention and boosting post-compulsory education and training.

Recommendation 10

Australia must ensure that by the year 2010, a minimum of nine out of ten young people leave their teens with a Year-12 or equivalent qualification, and that all young Australians achieve a formal education or training qualification at the post-compulsory level.

Revolutionary improvements to our schools

Our aim must be to ensure that all children, regardless of their parents’ wealth, have access to a quality education and the same chance to achieve their full potential. This does not mean little changes; it means revolutionary changes.

Creating the Knowledge Nation will depend largely on the professionalism and dedication of Australia’s teachers. They are one of our nation’s most important assets. We must value them and give them the resources they need to fully develop the nation’s knowledge potential.

Recommendation 11

The Commonwealth and the States should overhaul and modernise Australia’s schools by:

	increasing the proportion of Commonwealth money going to public schools and funding non-government schools on the basis of need;
	raising school participation through a targeted program that tackles the causes of disadvantage;
	creating more linkages and co-location between schools and universities, including ongoing teacher skill development programs and mentoring programs for disadvantaged high-school students;
	investing in the creation of a modern teaching profession through ongoing training and re-training programs, providing financial incentives to teachers to upgrade their skills and qualifications, and, in partnership with the States and Territories, raising the standing of the teaching profession, particularly in critical areas of shortage such as science and maths;
	making ICT literacy a core component of learning alongside literacy and numeracy by providing ongoing training for teachers in the use of ICT in the classroom, ensuring there is a national educational Internet portal for all schools and members of the community to use, expanding ‘cyber libraries’, making Internet access more affordable for all schools, and encouraging schools to develop and share high-quality online curricula; and
	providing children, from kindergarten through to Year 12 with a variety of experiences, encouraging a spirit of curiosity, excitement and their capacity for conceptual thinking to make linkages, form judgments, and to feel a sense of empowerment in a variety of disciplines, including language, music, art, sport, mathematics and communications.

End the tertiary education funding crisis

The most visible effects of our national investment crisis can be seen in our universities. They urgently need a reinvestment and modernisation strategy.

Recommendation 12

The Commonwealth should tackle the university funding crisis by:

	boosting the number of university positions by an amount necessary to meet industry needs and maximise Australia’s capacity as a Knowledge Nation by 2010;
	significantly increasing overall public funding of universities, including base operating funding, so they can continue to provide quality education and attract the best academic staff;
	improving staff development opportunities in universities;
	providing more incentives for people to study science and mathematics;
	reviewing HECS to ensure it does not act as a financial barrier to students, particularly mature-aged students and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds; and
	ensuring that all universities have the capacity to identify their own priorities and specialities from within the suite of national priorities and not be forced into a one-size-fits-all model.

A stronger vocational education and training system

The overwhelming majority of those who will be in the workforce in ten years time are existing workers. If these workers are to participate in the Knowledge Nation rather than be condemned to increasingly temporary and insecure employment, there must be specific initiatives to increase their access to vocational education and training.

Recommendation 13

Australia’s vocational education and training system should be strengthened by:

	increasing funding to TAFE, targeted towards strategic industries and skills and those in the community who are in danger of being excluded from the Knowledge Nation;
	ensuring that employers increase their level of investment in employee training that will lead to national qualifications;
	requiring companies restructuring their business to provide adequate notice and allow staff time off to participate in recognised education and training;
	improving vocational education and training in the workplace by adequately resourcing vocational education and training at the industry and enterprise level and further developing industrial partnerships through Industry Training Advisory Boards and the Australian National Training Authority; and
	creating strong quality assurance mechanisms for vocational education.

Investing in early learning

A growing body of literature on early childhood development indicates that what happens in the first years of a child’s life can strongly influence that child’s performance at school, whether he or she works and at what type of job. Investing in early learning, particularly for those in disadvantaged communities, can therefore be one of the best investments we can make in improving social equity and raising our nation’s future knowledge capacity.

Recommendation 14

The Commonwealth Government should develop a comprehensive National Early Assistance Strategy for Australia’s children and families, encompassing all levels of government and local communities. This strategy should be developed with the State and Territory Governments and be designed to deliver services such as:

	effective and accessible high-quality childcare and early childhood education, especially in lower income areas, in both the cities and the country, which enables parents to balance work and family life and promotes early childhood development;
	home visiting, or similar outreach programs for families with newborn children;
	linked family and community centres;
	locally responsive social security and employment services;
	linked community health services; and
	coordinated information and support services, including telephone advice lines for parents.

Rebuilding the ABC

The Knowledge Nation is not just about education and industry; it is about deepening and broadening the culture of the whole community. This task requires the existence of a well-funded and commercially independent national broadcaster.

Recommendation 15

Provide an adequate level of funding for the ABC as the quintessential Australian portal and to ensure a well resourced, genuinely independent and truly national public broadcaster. In particular, to ensure that adequate funding exists for the production of popular, original world-class Australian drama, comedy and current affairs programming that may not otherwise be commercially self-sustaining in small markets such as Australia.

A plan to tackle the ‘brain drain’

Nine leading Australian medical researchers, including Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty, work in just one U.S. research institute — the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. We need to encourage them and thousands of others like them in a variety of industries and occupations, including managers and business people, to return, bringing with them their experience and contacts. We also need to attract more scholars and business people of international calibre to work in Australia.

Recommendation 16

The Commonwealth should create an inventory of all recent Australian graduates with research degrees who are living abroad, and a register of resumes and contact details for private sector employers. It should also create at least 1000 additional publicly and privately financed commercial and university research positions to enable those wanting to return to Australia to do so and to attract leading scholars and researchers from other countries to move to Australia to live and work.

A National Information Policy

Access to information in Australia is currently very poor. Our principle should be that information paid for by the Australian people through their taxes should be readily available to all Australians.

Recommendation 17

There should be a National Information Policy to ensure access and equity in securing knowledge, to set out the rules by which information will be available as a public good, outside commercial exploitation, and to provide the basis of public policy that will be applicable to new technological developments. This policy should ensure that:

There is wide public access to the world of knowledge, including leading scholarly journals and other publications, through public libraries, education institutions and at home via the Internet, provided to the nation through the aggregation of the Commonwealth and the State’s purchasing power. Important ABS data is free of charge to those who need it. There is adequate public consultation and debate on ethical and human rights issues, including disability access, privacy and security, which arise as we move towards a society where more confidential information than ever before may be in an accessible electronic form.

A Population Policy

In the face of increasing global competition for knowledge and skills, Australia should develop a national population policy that plans for future skill needs in ‘emerging’ industries and builds the right age profile for future economic development. We must also utilise the knowledge and experience of people in the Third Age.

Recommendation 18

Australia must adopt a National Population Policy that is based on a national, rational debate about Australia’s carrying capacity and the implications for resource use; relies on an adequate database drawn from the cadastre; and distinguishes population policy (inevitably long term) from immigration practice (decisions made year by year). As a matter of urgency, visa processes for highly skilled scientists and technicians must be streamlined and overseas students with sought-after skills must receive greater encouragement to remain in Australia. Australia should also do more to use the experience and knowledge of people of the Third Age.

Improve the position of the humanities, social sciences and the arts in Australia

If we are to become an innovative society as well as a modern economy, we must not replace the richness of a broad and deep education with ‘knowledge’ that concentrates only on science and ‘skills’, important though these are.

The expansion of the university system to create a Knowledge Nation must include a corresponding improvement in the position of the humanities and social sciences. The arts, which are increasingly becoming the key providers of ‘content’ for information-based industries must be nurtured and expanded.

Recommendation 19

The humanities, social sciences and creative industries in Australia should be strengthened by:

	creating extra entry-level positions for a new generation of humanities researchers and lecturers in our universities;
	a reasonable share for the humanities and social sciences of funding increases for research through the ARC;
	creating partnerships in the humanities and social sciences to explore the commercial application of these disciplines and boost the creation of educational content;
	a renewed national effort to boost second language training;
	strengthened government support for the arts and creative industries through funding for the ABC, the Australia Council, the nation’s galleries and other important public institutions; and
	humanities and social science representation on the Prime Minister’s Knowledge Nation Council, which will replace the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council (‘ PMSEIC’) (see Recommendation 20).

New government structures to implement change

New government structures will be needed to assist the Prime Minister in the task of leading change.

Recommendation 20

To drive the creation of the Knowledge Nation across government(s) the Commonwealth should:

	adopt a whole-of-government approach to the creation and commercialisation of knowledge;
	elevate the importance of science within the Commonwealth Government and make the Prime Minister the Minister for the Knowledge Nation;
	broaden PMSEIC into a Knowledge Nation Council, with the full resources of a Knowledge Nation policy unit within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; and
	ensure that CoAG maximises the overall benefit to the nation of strategic investment in knowledge-based infrastructure, including school funding, university research investment, environmental management, and public health provision and research.