b'Canberra observed Canberra observedDavid Denham AMFigure 1.Changes in levels of investment in R & D as a percentage of GDP in Australia over the last 20 years. Associate Editor for GovernmentSource https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/technology-and-innovation/research-and-experimental-denham1@iinet.net.au development-businesses-australia/latest-release.Table 1.Gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) in Australia over the last 20 years. The dollars are actual Australian R & D effort stalls dollars and have not been adjusted for inflation. Source https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/technology-and-innovation/research-and-experimental-development-businesses-australia/latest-release.On 3 September the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) published its latestYear Business Government Higher Education Private non-profitTotal $billionreport on R & D investment in Australia in the financial year 2019-20. Although2011-12 31.70 18.32 3.55 8.89 0.94this increased by $2.5B to $35.6B over2012-13 33.47 18.85 3.75 9.92 0.95the 2017-18 results, the key number,2015-16 31.18 16.66 3.96 9.55 1.01the investment as a percentage of2017-18 33.06 17.44 3.33 11.23 1.06GDP, has remained the same at 1.79 per cent for the last four years (see2019-20 35.60 18.17 3.38 12.72 1.33Figure 1).Table 2.Business expenditure on R&D (BERD) in Australia over the last 20 years. The dollars are actual Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD)dollars and have not been adjusted for inflation. Source https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/represents the total expenditure devotedtechnology-and-innovation/research-and-experimental-development-businesses-australia/latest-release.to R&D by the Business, Government, Higher Education and Private non-profitBERD by the top ten industries 2013/14 ($m) 2015/16 ($m) 2017/18 ($m) 2019/20 ($m) sectors. Table 1 shows the key numbers, Professional, scientific & technical services 3953 3751 5113 6101provided by the ABS for the last five reports. Manufacturing 4844 3908 4599 4763Financial and insurance 3093 3215 2847 2714Notice that both the Government and the Industry sectors have stagnated. TheMining 2830 1876 1,050 890Higher Education sector has done well,Wholesale trade 960 877 931 835and the effect of COVID and the recentInformation, media and telecommunications 575 647 610 513staff losses in that sector are not evident in the numbers. GDP on R&D, and Israel is top of the listwas spent in the June Quarter of 2021, Investment by the top six sectors overat 4.9%. Australia doesnt even reportaccording to the ABS recent release of the last seven years is shown in Table 2.these statistics annually. exploration information. As you can see The mining investment has the largestin Figure 2 this is the highest it has been change with a decline to almost a thirdThere is some consolation. We are aheadsince December 2012.of the value in 2013/14 percent over theof Canada (1.54%) and New Zealand period. (1.35%), but as the school reports say:Gold was the main target, with nearly Could and should do better. We need$430m invested, followed by iron ore The national investment over the last tena focused plan on where to put ourwith $151M. Unfortunately for the iron years shows two clear trends. A steadyR&D dollars and a goal to increase ourore producers, the price of iron ore has increase from 2000 until 2008, and theninvestment to 3 percent of our GDP. plummeted from $US 220 a tonne in a steady decline from then until now,July 2021 to $105 in Septemberthey when the numbers appear to remainMineral exploration powers ahead,should be ready for a challenging unchanged. petroleum in doldrums future.Compared with other OECD countries,Minerals The search for lithium and other our results are not good. For examplecomponents for batteries is starting to Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, SwedenMineral exploration investmentcontribute, but it is still small compared and the US all invest over 3% of theircontinues to rise and a total of $912Mto gold and iron ore.33 PREVIEW OCTOBER 2021'