Get Venturous Australia

Think that we in Australia are not doing enough of our own innovation? Well, a review of the Australian National Innovation System has just been released.

"This report stands for the proposition that we [Australia] should arrest the slide in our performance and seize the opportunity that our recent prosperity gives us to begin building a more innovative productive world in which our children will live, to which they will contribute and which they will pass on in their turn."

Some might find the 224-page report, "Venturous Australia --- building strength in innovation", a quick cure for insomia (the above sentence has 53 words in it!), but it does make for some interesting reading.

Apart from the predictable recommendations to support research in universities and establishment of various committees, the report recommends that the R&D Tax concession be changed from a tax deduction to a 40 percent tax credit for large firms and 50 percent credit for companies with an annual turnover of less than $50 million.

Interestingly, it also recommends that the government create an advisory committee of web 2.0 practitioners to propose directions as they experiment with web 2.0 technologies and ideas.

You can download the full report or just the recommendations and individual chapters here.