New Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dumped innovation from his cabinet, with the portfolio abolished entirely as part of his new Ministerial line up.
Innovation covers important sectors such as startups, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and others and helps Australian businesses and organisations adapt to the changing world.
Since July 2015 there have been six different federal innovation ministers, with the chaos of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government leading to a malaise in national policy making that has hurt businesses, as well as our international reputation.
Businesses that innovate are almost 1.5 times more profitable than businesses that don’t, as well as being three times more likely to export and more than twice as likely to create jobs.
These numbers show the importance of innovation within the Victorian and Australian economies and make the decision by Mr Morrison to dump the portfolio all the more baffling.
Mr Morrison should immediately re-consider this short-sighted decision and put innovation back in his cabinet.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy Philip Dalidakis
“Since I’ve had the honour of being appointed Innovation Minister, I’ve had to deal with six different federal counterparts.”
“And now we have a new Prime Minister who has put together a Ministerial line up with no innovation whatsoever, leading to yet more uncertainty for business.”
“The new Prime Minister should immediately overturn this baffling decision and reinstate innovation to the cabinet.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020