Minister puts stamp on tech policy

New science and innovation minister Francis Logan has moved quickly to put his stamp on state government policy by identifying four industry sectors that he would target for growth.

Mr Logan said he would focus government support on biotechnology, specifically genomic research, information and communication technology, biofuels and the marine and defence sector.

The new minister is also introducing institutional changes to streamline the bureaucracy.

“I’ve inherited a bit of a dysfunctional portfolio,” he told WA Business News.

“There was a quite serious problem of duplication.”

The key change would be a merger of the Office of Science & Innovation, which had reported to former premier Geoff Gallop, with parts of the Department of Industry and Resources to create a new Office of Science, Technology & Innovation.

Mr Logan said he wanted to achieve a unified approach, in contrast to the old structure where the Office of Science & Innovation headed by chief scientist Bruce Hobbs concentrated on science and research while the department concentrated on industry development.

In support of that goal, Mr Logan also planned to review the Premier’s Science Council, chaired by the Lions Eye Institute’s Bruce Constable and the Technology and Industry Advisory Council, chaired by SGS Minerals’ John Thompson.

“It would seem logical to bring the two councils together but I’m still reviewing it,” he said.

At a policy level, Mr Logan said he wanted a much sharper focus.

“Rather than have a scattergun approach to industry development in the technology field, we should concentrate on areas where we have both competitive and comparative advantage and I’ve suggested that we focus our energies in four areas,” he said.

The first of these would be biotechnology, specifically genomic research and human, animal and agricultural applications.

“The reason why that is a really critical one for Western Australia is because we have the raw data here,” he said in reference to Health department data and Busselton health data that has been accumulated over the past 40 years.

“This is a great database for mining. Its unique, there is no other place in the world that has it.”

Mr Logan predicted that global pharmaceutical companies would be lured to WA because the state already has the data and would have the facilities for clinical trials.

His comments followed last week’s announcement that the government would provide $4.5million in seed funding for the Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine, to be based at the WA Institute for Medical Research at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

The second sector he planned to target for growth was the ICT sector.

Mr Logan cited companies like IBM and ADI, which have large software development teams in Perth servicing the global market, to illustrate the potential of the sector.

He said the state’s key competitive advantage was its lifestyle, which could be used to attract skilled staff to WA.

He acknowledged that the ICT industry wanted the government to use procurement to boost its growth but said that goal had to be weighed against other factors.

The third growth sector Mr Logan has targeted was biofuels and renewable energy.

“That’s going to be one of the next big things, there is no doubt about it. The oil companies are moving that way and we should be on board.”

He said WA’s key advantage was its ability to supply feedstocks, such as canola oil which is used in biodiesel, and renewable fuels such as hydrogen, which can be stripped out of gas.

The fourth sector was marine and defence, where Mr Logan was looking to build on the activity clustered around the Australian Marine Complex at Cockburn.

As well as WA’s well-known leadership in aluminium boat-building, he said the state was doing well in defence contracting and sub-sea oil and gas technology.

Mr Logan said the state government would look to provide infrastructure and foster the development of industry clusters.

It would also look to get better outcomes by focusing on the selected growth sectors.

“Funding will be channeled into these four areas and I don’t think we should apologise for that,” he said.

Mr Logan said applicants for government funding would need to “clearly benchmark” their expected outcomes.

“We won’t put the money in unless we get that,” he said.