R&D Start Cuts Show Minister Is Australia's Al Dunlap

Craig Emerson - Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism

Media Statement - 26 April 2002

The impact of the Government's freeze on a major innovation program is worse than the Minister pretends and the motives are more cynical.

New facts emerging today about the freeze of the R&D Start program are:

• The Government will not be accepting any new applications for funding for 12 months, not the six months the Government told the media;
• Companies that have had applications for grants pending (in some cases for up to six months), have been sent letters asking them to 'withdraw' their applications from the process;
• Some companies have been notified that the Government has already 'withdrawn' their applications for them against their wishes; and
• Existing applications awaiting decisions will not be carried over - they will have to submit fresh applications when the freeze ends.

The Government is forcibly withdrawing companies' outstanding grant applications to cover up the extent of the damage caused by the freeze.

'Chainsaw' Macfarlane is the Al Dunlap of Australian politics, cutting Government R&D support and slashing departmental staffing by almost 10 per cent.

By freezing the R&D Start program the Minister is sending Australia towards the tail-end of the field in the global race to becoming a knowledge economy.

No wonder the Minister criticised the inclusion of innovation in the shadow industry portfolio. He declared in January the Government is doing enough on R&D.

Yet business expenditure on R&D has fallen in every year of the Howard Government and the freeze on Government R&D support will only make it worse.