Mr BILLSON (2:56 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources. Would the minister inform the House of the success of government innovation policies which help Australian high-tech start-up companies? How are these policies benefiting the Australian economy?

Mr IAN MACFARLANE (Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) —I thank the member for Dunkley for his question and for his very strong interest in innovation. Australia is very much a smart country, and the government are very much committed to helping small business turn those great ideas into commercial reality. We have a focus on the high-tech start-up companies so that they can grow and increase their exports to the world. A lot of these companies are small, one-idea companies which need every bit of assistance they can get while they live off the smell of an oily rag as they attempt to commercialise their ideas. That is why in 2001 we changed the R&D tax concession to help these companies with their commercialisation. Companies turning over less than $5 million are now eligible for an R&D tax offset. This offset is seen by many of these small companies, particularly the biotech start-ups, as the most effective measure that we have in our innovation package, and some 1,600 have applied for this measure. This is good because we are seeing innovation continue to drive economic growth in our economy. That means that we see a growth in jobs, a growth in exports and a growth in the economy itself. We have seen companies in fact increasing their expenditure by 13 per cent in the last 12 months to some $5.5 billion.

I am asked how this assists our economy, and the outcome is clear. The thing that concerns me the most though is that the Labor Party has a policy to abolish the tax offset. Kim Carr's idea of promoting innovation is to abolish this measure which is recognised by many companies as the best part of our innovation package. It simply demonstrates that Labor continues to be anti small business, anti innovation and anti jobs.