ALP Tax Policy on R&D

[Dean Povey]

>Dan, Glen & All
>
>You absolutely right -- for a country with only 18+m people the per
>capita spent on research leads the world.  In the 6 years I spent
>looking at Australian R&D thousands of things were research, documented,
>reported, boxed and shelved because there is no incentive for anyone
>invest in a idea and wait the 5 to 10 years to get their money back.

Australia DOES NOT invest enough money in R&D.  We are well behind the
OECD average (0.8% GDP in Australia, 1.2% GDP OECD average) in R&D 
expenditure, and R&D spending (as a percentage of GDP) has actually DECLINED 
in the term of the Howard government. While Australia has a good record in
government spending on R&D, it is rare that this translates into actual
productisation of that research.

In the same tax package, Labor also announced 21M over three years to fund
venture capital incentives.  Is this enough?  Probably not, but it is
certainly better than nothing.  What incentives are there in the GST to help
finance the start-ups that are critical to commercialise Australia's R&D
potential?

Australia continues to ignore the virtue of high growth industries such as IT 
at its peril (in IT alone, Australia has an estimated 20 billion technology
deficit).  Witness the effect that a drop in world commodity prices has had on
our $ in the last week or so.  As long as we continue to invest in wool, wheat
and holes in the ground at the expense of high technology industries, our 
economy will be vulnerable to the increasing volatility of these markets.

-- 
Dean Povey,         | e-m: povey@dstc.edu.au     | Cryptozilla:
Research Scientist  | ph:  +61 7 3864 5120       |  www.cryptozilla.org/
Security Unit, DSTC | fax: +61 7 3864 1282       | Oscar - PKI Toolkit:
Brisbane, Australia | www: security.dstc.edu.au/ |  oscar.dstc.qut.edu.au/



-- 
Dean Povey,         | e-m: povey@dstc.edu.au     | Cryptozilla:
Research Scientist  | ph:  +61 7 3864 5120       |  www.cryptozilla.org/
Security Unit, DSTC | fax: +61 7 3864 1282       | Oscar - PKI Toolkit:
Brisbane, Australia | www: security.dstc.edu.au/ |  oscar.dstc.qut.edu.au/