How Turnbull's complex legacy lingers over Husic's innovation agenda
The launch of the National Reconstruction Fund is being closely watched by the VC and startup industries, which have seen similar promises made before.
Standing at the podium of the National Press Club in Canberra a year ago, Innovation Minister Ed Husic struck a chord with many in the venture capital and startup industry.
“Now, Australia can be a bystander or it can be a driver of change,” Husic said in his speech, in November last year. “We want to see Australia once more at the forefront of technological innovation and advanced manufacturing to make sure Australians benefit from our home-grown ingenuity.”
Last week, Husic announced the investment mandate for his centrepiece policy, the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, which will provide finance in the form of loans, equity and guarantees to grow companies across seven priority sectors, including renewables and low-emission technologies, medical science and defence.
In some ways, Husic’s innovation vision is a case of back to the future. It builds on an agenda started by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull some eight years before, but which many felt remained regretfully unfinished, its full potential unreached. And while a mature and thriving present-day VC market has, in hindsight, helped soften the prevailing view at the time that the former government had abandoned the industry after Turnbull was ousted, it does mean Husic’s fresh promises are being watched with greater scrutiny.
