We missed this one – Terry Cutler has released (and strangely – copyrighted) the government commissioned Review of the National Innovation System. I haven’t had a chance to read it myself, though I’ve read some commentary in the Fin Review suggesting that it’s written in a strange jargon far too close to consultant speak, and missed the mark in terms of pithy and politically saleable recommendations. I’ve also noticed – and agreed with – criticisms that “venturousaustralia” is a truly horrendous title.
But Ben Eltham at New Matilda has the good oil on what it’s all about.
Elsewhere: Creative Economy.
Senator Kim Carr was interviewed yesterday on RN too.
I couldn’t help but think of the Business Council of Australia’s submission to the Green Paper as I read through the Review. No citations? Mystery firms? How innovative! Will be interesting to see whether Cutler’s critiques of the neolib uni governance model have any impact on education funding…
Thanks for picking up on this one Mark – it’s important, but there’s only so many hours in a day!
No probs, Rob! I wanted to read it thoroughly and post myself – but fortunately given the time constraints Ben has done that at NM.
dk.au, what did he have to say about uni governance?
Elsewhere: Creative Economy.
Cuba attracts a lot of tourism as a time-capsule of the Fifties and a giant brothel hosting US bases.
So my idea is we do the same – only using the sixties. World championship wrestling, The Adams family, Deadly Earnest, Dons Party…whats not to like?
Innovation is for intelligent people. Not us.
Carr has already ruled out of play one of the key recommendations: an immediate and massive increase in university funding, just to catch up to where we were in ’93. The rest of the report – especially the stuff about tax concessions and credits – suggests that the Government will be looking to the private sector to make up the shortfall. Good luck with that.
Yes, the title is a shocker. And it’s very badly written – even when you take into consideration that it was probably ‘written’ by a great many people. Consultant cant is definitely the tine of the day. But the thing that bothers me the most about this report is that it’s clearly designed to be circulated as a glossy hardcopy. The choice of fonts, the colours (liberal use of a rather bilious green) and the overall layout make it very difficult to read off a screen. And I’ve tried.
This isn’t as trivial a point as you might think. The report and it’s appendices run to more than 300 pages. That’s a lot of paper and power for a low-emission age. One would think the Department of Innovation would be more inclined to produce something at least vaguely web-ready … but not on the face of the evidence available.
PR: “..we do the same – only using the sixties.”
I reckon you’re onto something there, and we can get away with it all being in black and white, which even we might be able to manage to shift around at decent speed with our meagre bandwidth.
Which brings me to: this is the same terry cutler who had the corporate strategy reins of Telecom
TMback in 1990. He knows here is talking about when he tells ofand thus why we are now the broadband blackhole of Asia, and going backwards in terms of customer value being offered.
He, there, in the relative obscurity of 2005 newmatilda, at least has the decency to acknowledge that (his) “four-part strategy from the 1980s and its unintended consequence…(is that) Australia’s flagship carrier has failed to carve out a defendable regional or global position ..(and is a )..tangled web we have all conspired to create” Yeh, right.
The tragedy is, there was always someone who could see what was happening, was going to happen, and was ready willing and able to take Australia into the 21st century, even back then, and his name was Barry Jones. Read his biography and weep as to how farsighted he was, and how cut off at the knees by the sectorial interests embedded in the labor party.
La plus ca change…
Carr has been making some encouraging noise around funding for the humanities, I think he is genuinely interested in putting the arts back on the agenda, as a former history teacher and all, whether his cabinet colleagues agree with him or not is another thing…
This report is shockingly written, I work in the Department and couldn’t be bothered reading it, even by Government standards its horrendous.
And heres an interesting tidbit, it seems the Dept. of Innovation’s web filter was notched up recently and LP is now blocked, I have to wait until I get home to lurk around here!
Cutler’s recommendation that eligibility for the R&D tax concession be tightened is a good one. I think its good that the government provides incentives for private business to undertake R&D, but its turned into a farce. Big business in particular writes off all sorts of normal operational costs, like upgrading computer software as ‘R&D’, its a joke.
Oh noes! You’ll have to convince them that innovation is done on the blogosphere!
“LP is now blocked,” … that’s extraordinary.
Fair enough if the department is full of unprofessional types that haven’t the strength of character to stay on task during working hours, and are rather too easily distracted by the cheap purple makeup, but surely folks like shouldn’t be in these important jobs, and LP is providing a service by providing a screening instrument.
It can’t be that they are worried about the corrupting influence of what they might read or write, that would be futile since they can’t regulate what consenting adults do in their own time.
Can LP apply for mandatory Government warning status, like smoking and alcohol, and other originally pro-social vices, get? What is the limit over which you are considered to be binge blogging?
Danny, I must say I am distracted by the pretty purple makeup, and the public service is of full of blog/news junkies who ooccasionally (but not always, contrary to the popular stereotype), have too much time on their hands.
I did enquire, and I’m quite sure LP hasn’t been targeted, they just notch up their general filter that looks for certain taglines, or something…Other quite legitimate sites have been blocked too. I have heard the Secretary has a particular disdain for internet misuse
I don’t actually think the Cutler Report is as bad as some of the posters here think it is. There are some good policy ideas advanced and the general theme of promoting a broader and more nuanced perspective of innovation is welcome. For instance, the points made about service sector innovation are quite valuable. And Cutler is refreshingly upfront about the need to spend billions more, rather than beating about the bush with weasel words about “should government spending priorities change” or “opportunity costs.”
But I have to agree that the title is a shocker!