AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT OUTCOMES
The productivity agenda - education, skills, training, science and innovation
According to the Australia 2020 Initial Report, Australia will maximise its wealth, excellence and equity by increasing productivity growth to the leading edge of developed countries, by:
- Equipping all Australians through an education and training system that leads the world in excellence and inclusion
- Deploying Australia's human capital efficiently and fairly, including overcoming the barriers that lock individuals and communities out of real opportunities
- Connecting through new collaborations across our education, business and innovation systems
According to the delegates, progress in these areas will depend upon a focus on:
- childhood development
- economic and social mobility and access to flexible working arrangements
- educational opportunities in diverse and economy relevant fields
- realising the potential for innovation
- attracting the best minds
- creating more effective modes of communication between institutions and people
Are we on the right track, and how are we going to achieve these goals? In the coming weeks we'll be featuring specific blogs on the top ideas in the productivity area, but in the meantime - how would YOU contribute to achieving these goals?
To read pre-Summit submissions by Open Forum participants, click here.
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Comments
HECS and Stopping the Brain Drain
There has been much talk about the HECS debt burden placed on students and how much it impacts on their lives. However, Australia suffers another problem with many of our best graduates being drawn overseas to pursue careers because of better remuneration.
An alternative which might help to address both of these problems would be to maintain HECS fees in trust for a period of say ten years after graduation. After that time, if the graduate has residence and a job within Australia, the HECS monies plus interest are rolled into the graduate's superannuation fund.
If however the graduate is employed outside Australia by a foreign company, their initial HECS fee is retained by the government for the benefit of Australia.
The incentive of a potential boost to future superannuation benefits and the disincentive of losing this money if employment is pursued overseas might help to encourage more students into university courses and slow the brain-drain from Australia.
Innovation and research
I would argue that to better enable innovation and research in Australia that we need to move CSIRO away from the pseudo commerical model they are currently using. The output from CSIRO should be considered, as with data from many other federal agencies, a public good - not something to sell to a commerical company to make money from. The commerical model that CSIRO uses also makes it extremely difficult for other Govt departments to interact freely with and benefit from CSIRO know how. CSIRO is so concerned about intellectual property and ligitigation that they have trouble participating in public good research.
Ben Rogers
International Students (ELICOS)
According to the ABS: "Education services provided in Australia to international students were valued at over $9 billion in export earnings in the financial year 2004-05. This was the third highest export for Australia, and generated more than wool ($2.3 billion), wheat ($3.2 billion) and beef ($4.5 billion) in terms of value."
This is obviously a huge industry that seems to have been neglected in the 2020 Forum.
Metrification
It is time that we reinstated the metricifation board.
In the seventies Australia converted to the metric system. Imperial measues were to be phased out and we ceased teaching our children their complexities. The metricifation board was set up with draconian powers to stamp out imperial measures. A few years later it was decides that their job was done and the board was dismantled.
Since then imperial measures have increasingly been gaining market share. Not only for the maintenance of existing machinery but increasingly in new products being imported into Australia. For example many of the small tools imported into this country are built in China for the USA market. China itself uses metric measures and probably supplies metric models for Europe. So why do we get the imperial version?
The inefficiencies are manifest. If you go into your local hardware store equal shelf space is taken up by metric and imperial tool. When I go travelling I have to carry two sets of spanners, one for the car and one for my Australian made trailer, etc.
Our schools are not meant to teach the imperial system and our children have to learn on the run. Remember that even NASA got this wrong and wasted millions of dollar as a result.
So the metrification board should be reconviened. The importation and manufacture of new product based on the imperial system should once again be banned. Publications quoting imperial measures should include metric conversions, ie if a newspaper says that someone is six foot tall they must also say that this is 1.83 metres.