Manufacturing Taskforce largely overlooks biotechnology

The Prime Minister’s Manufacturing Taskforce report from non-government members, released yesterday, has focused largely on traditional manufacturing with little attention given to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing sectors.

Of the 41 recommendations made in the report, only one explicitly references medical devices and pharmaceuticals, and calls for a very generalised examination of the regulation of product approval processes and state-level environmental laws.

Despite receiving only cursory attention, the report does acknowledge that the manufacturing sector has grown in absolute terms over the last decade, and that the largest increase in real exports in that time has been in scientific and medical instruments, and pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

The report was commissioned by the government last year and tasked with how manufacturing in Australia can be strengthened in the future.

The first recommendation from the report is that the government ought to “make a clear statement that Australian manufacturing not only matters, but that it is critical to the broad-based economy we need and the sort of society we aspire to.”

Also mentioned was the impact of the carbon price on manufacturing. There is little mention in the report of potential industrial relations reform pertaining to manufacturing.

The authors of the report include representatives from industry, unions, government and the R&D community.

The government welcomed the report and has announced it is supportive in principle of most of the report’s recommendations, although it rejected a call to investigate a sovereign wealth fund and a call to reserve some domestically produced natural gas for manufacturing use.

Universities Australia has also criticised the lack of acknowledgement of basic research as a contributor to innovation and productivity, and that research funding be tied to collaborations with industry.

Writing in The Conversation, Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said: “While strategic, translational and applied research must be encouraged and has a vital role to play in modernising and diversifying the economy, Universities Australia is concerned that the report understates the value of basic research as a fundamental building block of the research system needed to support innovation and product development.”

The full report from the non-government members of the taskforce is available here.