Labor Committed to Knowledge Nation

Date: 15 May 2000

The Shadow Minister for Industry and Technology, Bob McMullan, has reaffirmed Labor's commitment to creating Australia as a Knowledge Nation with a knowledge economy.

Mr McMullan was speaking on Channel Seven's Sunday Sunrise program about the Federal Budget and the Government's lack of commitment to technology and innovation.

"This was a budget of lost opportunities, with no vision or statement about where the Government is taking the country," Mr McMullan said.

"What Australia needs is a picture of ourselves in the new economy - the knowledge economy.

"To make Australia a Knowledge Nation will require improved skills, better innovation and investment in research.

"We won't reach 5 per cent unemployment unless the Federal Government makes a fundamental commitment to the knowledge economy.

"Currently, the nations of the world don't look to Australia for high-technology products.

"This is not helped by a Government that continues to cut funding for education and research.

"Since this Government came to office Business Expenditure in Research and Development (BERD) has fallen and we continue to fall behind many economies that will be the big winners in the knowledge economy in the next decade.

"I have committed a Labor Government to getting BERD up to the OECD average as a percentage of GDP by 2010, and we are prepared to be judged against this goal.

"There is still great potential for Australia to become an R&D and education headquarters for the region, but it must be a conscious goal, talked up, with adequate incentives and the public sector playing a role.

"We need a Prime Minister who is articulating a commitment to the Knowledge Nation and the knowledge economy, with industry and education policies locked into that.

"The Knowledge Nation will only be achieved under a Beazley Labor Government," Mr McMullan said.

For further information

Contact:	Tim Benson,
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	(02) 6277 4803
WWW:	http://www.alp.org.au

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