Thank you very much.

I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as the traditional owners of the land.

There must be an election on soon. I was listening carefully to what Paul had to say, and it is, I have to say, probably the best way of describing it is “a little bit argumentative”.

His point is a little bit negative about the state of the Government's approach. It is not my contention, never ever should be, that the approach of the government is perfect or immune from criticism or debate or discussion. This is the place for that. We are in Canberra, the nation's capital, in a room full of the country's leading innovators and innovation policy specialists.

I have a set of notes here about a Future Made in Australia, which I will come to. But this idea that there is a hostility within the government, driven by our friends in the trade union movement to artificial intelligence, because there's a concern in the Labour movement that artificial intelligence might, by upgrading our technical capabilities, have some impact in the labour market.

I just have to say that is arrant nonsense. It is a figment of people's imaginations. That kind of Luddite-like approach to technological adaptation has never been a feature. I'm a person who’s a student of Labor history and the history of our Labour movement. It has never been a feature of Labour movement thinking, and it's certainly not the approach of a Government that has invested deeply in Australia's artificial intelligence capability, including, the PsiQuantum arrangement.

But all of the other things that the Government has done in this area are directed towards making sure that Australia is a leader in the adoption of artificial intelligence technology as an enabling capability itself.

But also for our firms to be able to engage this technology and its possibilities to make us more competitive and adopt technology faster, and for all sorts of reasons to be leaders in this area.

We should have a discussion about the future of innovation policy, but it has to be based upon a common understanding of the facts. I do think that does need to be called out and we should be alert to this, really, that there are going to be claims made about this area of policy that just are not right.

It was 60 years ago in Canberra, again, that Donald Horne published 'The Lucky Country,' one of the most, because of its title, misunderstood books in Australian political history.

His central thesis was that Australia showed less enterprise than other industrial countries of its time. He wanted to shake Australia from the complacency of the Menzies years. The truth is that that moment is upon us again now.

We have always been a nation of innovators. It is just that the innovation community has not always had a Government that is willing to back it. That means an active government that has the will and the power to use all the levers of economic statecraft to deal with the big challenges that Australia faces today.

To make us fairer, more productive, to enable our democracy, but also in this environment where the two big challenges, climate and energy on the one hand, and our increasing geopolitical instability, particularly in our region, on the other, demand that government engages all of the levers of statecraft, in the national interest, in the interests of Australia and in the interests of Australians themselves.

That means engaging all of our arms of policy, a step up, all of the levers--and innovation policy is one of those.

We are engaged in a Future Made in Australia, in making sure that we drive big investments, the future national transformational investments in energy, using all of the strengths that Australia has.

All the minerals required in this giant industrial transformation that is occurring in 98 per cent of our trading partners who will require goods that contain all of these minerals Australia is blessed to have. Not just some of them in large quantities, but the only nation on earth to have all of them, abundant sun and wind resources above the ground. That is our future.

We are going to use that term that our friends in the economic community use, that is our future comparative advantage, and to make sure that we're driving investment into green iron and green metals production, and all of the opportunities that pulls through for the future the country.

Not just sit on our hands and not engage with the private sector, with the innovation community, and just leave these questions up to the invisible hand, while all of the great countries of the earth are competing for this investment.

To make sure that we are driving the investment into Australia with the investment attraction capability that Future Made in Australia's production tax incentives and the single front door and all of the other initiatives in Future Made in Australia will drive.

Secondly, in terms of the investments and capabilities that Australia requires in economic resilience terms and in national security terms, that we are building those capabilities here.

As Ed has indicated, the broader package of Future Made in Australia, those production tax incentives open up a vast amount of opportunity for smart industry policy, for effective innovation policy.

All of the work that Ed is engaged in, the space for that is larger because of Future Made in Australia, the capacity for the great national conversation that it is leading around our level of research and development spending to GDP, that space is enlarged because of the ambition of Future Made in Australia.

I will just say to you that while Future Made in Australia is not innovation policy itself it is the government of Australia saying we are going to enlarge the capacity for innovation.

The Albanese Government will build here, whether it is critical minerals processing, or green iron production, build here in Australia, taking a big step, big emission step, out of global steel chain production.

Whether it is making sure that in the vast rollout of renewable energy and transmission capability that we're grasping the opportunity to make those things here in Australia, that opens up enormous opportunity for you as a community of innovators.

More than that, more than opportunity, as we focus on these big national missions, it does, I think, also demand enormous responsibility and a sense of seriousness about us together: government, the private sector, innovation community, our research institutions, our universities, our employer associations, our trade unions, our State and Territory governments.

All of us focused on these sets of national objectives that the delivery of which will determine whether our children and grandchildren live in a safe and prosperous part of the world that delivers peace and prosperity for future generations.

The stakes are that serious, and that is why I bristle when claims are made about innovation policy and industrial policy and Future Made in Australia that are not focused on what, at a serious level, puts Australia where it needs to be for our future.

With that, as we are approaching the final week in Parliament, it’s not the silly season up there yet, business is very serious at this point, at this juncture, I can tell you. But just like Ed, it is an opportunity to thank you for all of your work this year and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you.