title: Science and Technology Policy in Australia: Implementation Problems and Prospects
Creators: name: Ryan, Neal
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 1992
Subjects: subject: Science and technology
subject: Australia
subject: Research
subject: Commercialisation of technology
subject: Government assistance

description: A long standing economic problem in Australia has been its inability to convert its world class scientific research and development into high value, internationally competitive industries. Throughout the 1980s Commonwealth and State governments have attempted to address this issue through a series of interventions which have done little to change the situation. Indeed, the new technology sector in Australia remains economically and politically unimportant in the 1990s. This thesis examines government intervention in the new technology sector with a particular focus on public policy implementation issues which have been an important influence on outcomes. This thesis concentrates attention on the recent government assistance for the commercialisation of technology in Australia. This task is undertaken in two parts. First, there is an examination of the institutions and actors which have impacted on the development of science and technology (S&amp;T) policy in Australia. This level of analysis provides sufficient disaggregration of the S&amp;T policy environment to be able to examine important areas affecting the implementation of policy, and provides a context for evaluating specific government programs. Second, government programs assisting in the commercialisation of technology are evaluated with respect to: political outcomes such as political support, coordination and consistency; and economic outcomes such as commercial benefits and the development of industrial structures. This thesis examines four Commonwealth programs which have been the main source of assistance to the commercialisation of technology in Australia, and the intervention of State governments in the sector. The Commonwealth programs examined here are the Management and Investment Companies Program, Australian Government Offsets, National Energy Research Development and Demonstration Program, and National Procurement and Demonstration Program. Institutions, actors and programs provide the empirical evidence for addressing two implementation research questions which are central to this thesis. The first research problem is to assess the impact of implementation on policy outcomes. Second, analysis of the outcomes of programs enables the disaggregration of the important elements of implementation. The first conclusion drawn from this thesis is that poor implementation strategies have been a central influence on the inadequate results achieved from government intervention in the new technology sector. The implementation of government S&amp;T programs have been characterised by: a lack of cooperation, coordination and coherence between Commonwealth agencies, and between Federal and State governments; and an absence of effective linkages between program objectives, long-term commercial and structural needs of the sector and implementation strategies. Second, the elements of implementation which have dominated S&amp;T policy outcomes in Australia have been: the absence of political support base to vigilantly support the cause of new technology programs, and argue for changes where appropriate; and the absence of sound commercial theory in implementation strategies. These elements of implementation suggest that fixture government support for new technology industries requires programs to be more closely linked to existing economic interests, and strategies enhancing the prospects of industries succeeding commercially.