Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into the 2021–22 Budget Estimates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:19): I refer to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s inquiry into the budget estimates for 2021–22 and the contribution from the Minister for Economic Development on how Victoria is trying to strengthen economic performance through a range of mechanisms. I want to continue my contribution on how we reach globally, lead nationally and deliver for Victoria.

In this contribution I want to look at research and development that delivers innovation for new industries and jobs and highlight how I am driving the strategy creating life-saving opportunities. As Victoria’s first Parliamentary Secretary for Medical Research I represented the Victorian government at the Australian British Health Catalyst recently on the future of health care in the UK and Australia, digital and people. It proved vital and urgent in the time of pandemic and highly valuable for the opportunities I uncovered and have pursued. ‘Creating opportunity from adversity’ was the title of my presentation on establishing the health precincts of the future in built and virtual forms—sharing intellectual property, leveraging value, cutting costs and accelerating results.

I have also identified more valuable investment opportunities through the European Australian Business Council’s (EABC) missions in London and Italy. These feature multibillion-euro opportunities for life-saving and life-changing collaborations; access to breakthrough technologies against cancer, including the so-called Australian disease, melanoma, which the Victorian government is driving; lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic; and new digital technologies to reduce hospital waiting lists. Now, this is crucial in the time of pandemic and what the Victorian government is also trying to take care of right now. Such leads were followed up on the spot and continue to be pursued. Projects remain confidential, but the leader of Italy’s biomedical sector publicly acknowledged the potential value. This is incredibly significant as the next evolution for Monash University, who have a competitive advantage with a campus in Italy. It follows the world-first announcement this week of mRNA manufacturing on a university campus at Monash with Moderna.

To put Melbourne in a global context, we are, like Boston and London, a world leader in life-changing and life-saving medical research, which emanates from our internationally acclaimed academies, especially the universities of Melbourne and Monash. mRNA manufacturing provides next-generation vaccines against the pandemic and is crucial for breakthroughs against cancers and other diseases. So I was delighted to join Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Premier and federal and state ministers this week for the important announcement for health, science and national security. Creating opportunity, leveraging assets, building collaborations and delivering results are the themes that I will continue to beat like a drum. It has proved successful internationally through the Cancer Moonshot with the White House, and we will continue to try and expand that connection through the Catalyst and the EABC mission.

The free trade agreement between Australia and the UK and the AUKUS alliance provide mechanisms to expand collaborations and deliver a brain gain instead of a brain drain. I drew these themes together to create an international vision to deliver results at home and abroad, to avoid cultural blind spots and place-based disadvantage that have proved devastating during globalisation and the pandemic.

My other critical aim is to avoid Einstein’s definition of insanity—when the fatigue and fog of the pandemic clears we must not return to doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, because the focus of contemporary politics can shift in the blink of a tweet. All we must defeat is the silo mentality, turf wars, institutional ego, bureaucratic inertia, the political cycle and the fog and fatigue of the pandemic. Add to this list the triumph of politics too often over rational decision-making and Einstein’s definition of insanity—repeating cultural, generational and systemic failures. International ecosystems must continue to expand. Think of data as infrastructure. Collaborate across organisations and do not abandon postcodes of disadvantage like an orphan. This is where we must go back and leverage the connection. It is what I addressed in Creating Opportunity: Postcodes of Hope in 2016 about manufacturing. We can do a new city deal from Melbourne’s north and take care of Broadmeadows as part of that, because we are changing it from a rust belt to a green belt and a brain belt and delivering vaccine manufacturing there as well.