Australia’s Economic Reform Roundtable: Will innovation and IP get a seat at the table?
19/08/25
Background
From August 19, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer, Jim Chalmers will host a three-day Economic Reform Roundtable for leaders from business, unions, politics, civil society, government and other experts. They plan to bring together views on economic reform for Australia, with a focus on being globally competitive and increasing productivity.
The roundtable will focus on three main themes with a view to raising living standards:
- Making the Australian economy more productive
- Building resilience in the face of global uncertainty; and
- Strengthening the budget and making it more sustainable.
On the eve of the roundtable, the Alliance of Industry Associations (The Industry Alliance) – a coalition of nearly thirty groups representing Australia’s small, medium and large businesses, universities, farmers, pharmacies and the investment community – released a statement, directed to the economic reform roundtable. The Industry Alliance statement supports measures to improve business confidence and investment and raise living standards for all Australians. Specifically, the statement calls for:
- A reduction in red tape by 25% by 2030;
- Improved planning and major project approvals;
- A boost to investment and innovation; and
- A kickstart to productive tax reform that doesn’t raise costs for consumers or businesses.
The Industry Alliance Statement also indicates that investment is needed to deliver everything from faster home builds, through to breakthrough medical research and energy transition. Dovetailing into these objectives there is a general call for an innovation agenda. This makes sense because productivity and innovation go hand-in-hand.
Innovation agenda
Unsettlingly, there is a feel of déjà vu about the Economic Reform Roundtable, at least in relation to a focus on productivity and an innovation agenda. In December 2015, then Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull launched the Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA). With a view to creating a modern, dynamic, 21st century economy Australia needs.
At that time, it was acknowledged that our universities and research organisations, such as the CSIRO are “world class” but alarmingly Australia consistently ranks last or second last amongst OECD for business research collaboration and is a straggler in commercialising the results of our world class research.
Despite all the good intentions, Turnbull’s NISA did not succeed in its objective. In fact, some commentators believe that the innovation policy was “buried” by the Government of the time because their research showed that innovation was not perceived as “politically sexy” by the Australian electorate. Australia, we have a problem!
Fear of IP?
Relevantly, neither Turnbull’s NISA nor the Economic Reform Roundtable directly refer to the importance of intellectual property rights, such as patent protection of innovation in the commercialisation process and productivity. This apparent lack of awareness regarding the importance of IP systems, is mirrored by the lack of engagement of Australian business with the patent system. On this point, the 2025 IP Australia Report shows that the number of patent applications filed by Australian applicants accounts for only about 10% of the total patent applications filed; a consistent and worrying statistic that has been evident for many years. In other words, Australia remains a perennial net importer of IP.
Perceived barriers or impediments that prevent Australian businesses filing and obtaining patents was one of the terms of reference for an Australian patent review run from August 2020 to February 2021 by Professor Raoul Mortley. Relevantly this review was enacted by an amendment to the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 2 and Other Measures) Act 2020, as a concession by the Government for the abolition of the Australian innovation patent system – take note! Suffice to say that ultimately the recommendations made by the Mortley Report were not considered significant enough to be actioned by the Government of the day.
The way forward – a new second-tier patent system.
It remains to be seen how the Economic Reform Roundtable may address or influence Australia’s current innovation frailty, which undoubtedly negatively impacts the country’s productivity. It is nevertheless encouraging that the agenda for day two of the meeting is directed to productivity with a session devoted to “AI and Innovation”.
For those leaders directly involved in the roundtable it may be prudent to consider the views of Australian businesses leading up to the abolition of the innovation patent system. These businesses consistently indicated that the removal of the innovation patent would:
- curb innovation;
- result in the loss of jobs; and
- increase importation of overseas products into Australia.
Testament to these views was that the overwhelming majority of submissions made by businesses to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics supported the retention of the innovation patent system, not its abolition.
Many Australian stakeholders, including the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA), are strongly of the view that the introduction of a new second-tier patent system would be an important initiative to support and boost Australian innovation, which in turn would enhance productivity and open the way for greater prosperity. Economic Reform Roundtable – take note!
Grant Shoebridge is Vice President of IPTA.
