http://minister.innovation.gov.au/chrisevans/Speeches/Pages/AddresstoAustCham.aspx
Address to AustCham Breakfast
21 Feb 2012
The Peninsula Beijing
Beijing
[Check against delivery]
Good morning everyone and thank you for braving the Beijing winter to attend this AustCham breakfast.
Before I continue, I'd like to acknowledge the presence here today of:
- the Hon John Day, West Australian Minister for Science and Innovation - and you will hear from John later
- Dr Jonathan Kings, SKA Project Leader and New Zealand representative to the Australia/New Zealand SKA Coordination Committee.
Minister Day and Dr Kings have travelled as part of our delegation to Beijing to promote Australia's bid for the Square Kilometre Array.
For those of you who are not familiar with the project it is one of the biggest and most exciting international science projects of the 21st century.
The SKA is the next generation of radio telescopes and Australia and New Zealand have combined in a bid to have the thousands of telescopes required located in the remote Mid-West of my home state Western Australia.
We believe we have a winning combination in a remote and radio silent site, a world leading communication system in the National Broadband Network and the engineering and technical expertise to turn this scientific dream into a reality.
Along with Minister Day I have had the opportunity to discuss our bid with the Minister for Science and Technology Dr Wan Gang, Vice Minister Madame Chen Xiaoya and some of the nation's leading scientists and astronomers.
We have also had the opportunity to speak more broadly about the continuing importance of Australia's close economic and education ties with China.
In a time of global economic uncertainty, Australia and China continue to enjoy a strong and growing economic relationship.
And on the world stage Australia's economy continues to outperform other advanced economies.
Our economy has grown for more than 20 consecutive years.
We continue to enjoy solid growth, low unemployment, very low public debt, contained inflation, a strong and stable financial system and an unprecedented investment pipeline-fuelled largely by demand from India and China.
We responded decisively and effectively to the Global Financial Crisis.
As other advanced economies struggle to counter unemployment rates which have soared into double digits, Australia has created more than 700,000 jobs in recent years.
For the first time in our history, we have been awarded a Triple A credit rating by all three global ratings agencies and the Government remains determined to return the budget to surplus in 2012-13.
We are implementing significant reforms, including the introduction of a price on carbon that will drive the development of cleaner energy and we are ensuring that all Australians share in the benefits of our mining boom.
But while we have an enviable economic outlook, we too face our share of challenges.
Key among those challenges is the need to meet the ever growing demand for skilled workers to ensure that as our economy changes we are able to make the structural adjustment required.
To give you some sense of the structural adjustment challenge we face I refer to research conducted by the independent body Skills Australia which has forecast that by 2025 a third of all jobs will require a minimum of a bachelor's degree qualification.
A key driver of this demand for high skilled workers is our booming resources sector which has seen an unprecedented demand for skilled workers, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia.
I recently completed a tour of key resource projects run by Rio Tinto, Woodside and CITIC Pacific in the town of Karratha in Australia's west.
The scale of the projects is difficult to fathom, but the demand for high skilled workers to construct and then operate these multi-billion dollar projects is clearly evident.
For Australia to compete in the international economy and continue to have a strong and productive economy, there's no question that we're going to need a more highly skilled workforce.
We know too that the strong Australian dollar is putting pressure on manufacturing and other industries.
It will take time for the economy to adjust and we will see job losses in that process.
As we build the new Australian economy, Government and industry must keep an eye on the future but at the same time make it our business to look after workers caught in the middle of the changing landscape.
In the broader context of skilling Australians for the jobs of today and tomorrow, we must ensure support is available for those who are displaced to help them acquire new skills and find alternative work.
That's the reality for our future prosperity.
We need to ensure people are getting the training that the new and emerging forms of industry will need.
But it's also about up-skilling people in existing employment and existing industries.
And it's about producing the university graduates that the economy of the future, our new economy, will need.
The recent portfolio changes announced by the Prime Minister are intended to help us achieve these goals.
In addition to responsibility for tertiary education and skills, I am now also responsible for our science and research agenda.
In the same department, my cabinet colleague Greg Combet is responsible for Innovation and Industry.
The changes fulfil the Government's intention to link education and training with science and research, as well as its innovation and industry agendas.
The goal is for training, education, innovation and research to drive productivity in the economy.
My job is to make sure we've got the workforce with the skills and the research capabilities, to allow industry to grow and improve our productivity.
To remain competitive Australia must ensure that science and research is underpinning industry and driving them to adapt to the modern economy.
As the Prime Minister has said, the new economy needs workers who are as innovative as the industry they will work for.
Workers whose skills grow as quickly as the sophistication of the technology they use every day.
To meet that demand for highly skilled workers, the Australian Government has embarked on a series of major reforms aimed at ensuring our education and training sectors are able to respond directly to the needs of our economy.
This year sees the beginning of a new era in tertiary education in Australia.
An era in which universities will have no longer have limits placed on them when it comes to offering degree places to eligible students.
The uncapping of the number of students who can attend university is a landmark reform which has already had an impact on the number of students attending university.
In the four years to 2012, there has been a 20 per cent growth in student places. An additional 150,000 Australian students are now attending university.
And the Gillard Government remains on track to meet its target of 40 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds attaining a bachelor degree or higher by 2025.
The Government is also working direct partnerships with industry to help the up-skill existing workers and train new workers.
We have invested more than $500 million into the National Workforce Development Fund to enable industry to identify their training priorities and to partner with the Government in meeting the cost of that training.
Training projects are being funded across Australia and at the end of their training workers are job ready and able to meeting existing skills demands.
This demand driven model has the support of industry and the unions and is proving to be a very successful and targeted strategy in meeting the skills challenge.
It's been very heartening to see industry get on board-to date, in 2011-12, some $48 million of Government funding has been matched by $45 million from industry for more than 280 projects.
And there's more in the pipeline.
The Government is also seeking to reform the nation's vocational education and training system to ensure that it too is able to respond to the needs of the economy.
In coming months we will seek the support of the states to provide guaranteed training places for students seeking to complete foundation skills courses.
The Australian Government will provide government-subsidised Diploma and Advanced Diploma students the opportunity to defer payment of their upfront fees through study-now-pay-later loans, similar to what is currently available for university students.
Our aim is to develop a national training system that will increase the ability of our workforce to respond to changing demands of industry and changing economic conditions.
We are confident that these reforms will allow more Australians to get the skills they need to join the workforce and share in our nation's prosperity.
During my visit I have been struck by the fact that China is also confronting the challenges of better integrating education, skills development and training, as well as science, research, innovation and industry.
In discussions with Education Minister Yuan Guiren and Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang, it was clear that education and science are central to meeting future challenges and an important part of our bilateral relationship.
The Australian Government will continue to support Australian institutions to collaborate with Chinese partners.
I have announced initiatives to further strengthen institutional collaboration between our two countries.
The first is my support for a short-term graduate student exchange program.
This will build on the existing suite of collaborative activities being conducted by the Group of Eight in partnership with leading universities in China.
The second announcement, which I made with Minister Yuan, is an Australia-China joint higher education forum to be held in Australia later this year.
This forum will bring together university leaders from both countries to discuss future priorities for collaboration.
It will provide a strong platform for Australian and Chinese universities to deepen their engagement and look to draw on each others' expertise.
Science and research are also key areas of collaboration.
Chinese and Australian scientists have worked together for more than three decades.
China is now Australia's third most important international science and research partner in terms of publications and Australia ranks sixth among China's international partners.
I look forward to the establishment of new joint research centres funded by the Australia-China Science and Research Fund later this year.
When it comes to education collaboration, I am also committed to ensuring more Australian students have the opportunity to live and study in China as part of their university experience.
The best way for us to deepen our relationship is through the forging of strong people to people links-relationships which last a lifetime and are born of meaningful cultural exchange.
We must equip our students to thrive in a global economy, one in which China and Asia more generally is increasingly a key player. Australian students who study in China will have an edge when it comes tomorrow's workplaces.
Australia must also ensure that we remain an attractive and competitive destination for international students.
I am pleased that despite the recent strength of our dollar, Australia remains a favoured destination for Chinese students. Indeed, yesterday I met several alumni from Australian universities who have returned home to work in Beijing.
We remain strongly committed to being a provider of quality education for international students and our universities continue to welcome students to our shores.
We've also streamlined our visa applications for international students and expanded work rights to enable students to gain valuable work experience in Australia following the completion of their study.
Conclusion
There's little doubt the fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong.
This has placed us in a much better position than most advanced economies.
And while Australia is not immune to the seemingly intractable economic challenges currently facing Europe, we have a very strong economic foundation which stands us in good stead.
- Strong fiscal discipline by the Government, with a commitment to return to surplus.
- Low unemployment levels.
- Our huge investment in the highly-skilled workforce of the future.
All these position us to forge ahead with the new Australian economy that we are building.
A key element of our new economy lies in the close relationships we have with countries like China.
Australia's relationship with China is unique.
Our links to China have been forged over several decades of diplomatic relations.
In the 15 years to 2011, our two-way trade with China has grown from $8.8 billion to $113 billion.
China is now our biggest trading partner.
Our countries also have a long and rich history of working collaboratively in the important areas of education, science and research.
Our links are strong and enduring, and I am confident that we will continue to build on these well into the 21st century.