PharmaTelevision - Victorian Government Provides Support for Innovation

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Video title: Victorian Government Provides Support for Innovation

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The role government can play in providing innovators with support through development to commercialisation is discussed in this special interview with Gavin Jennings, the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Innovation in the Victorian Government. He talks of the many policies in place in Victoria which help to encourage businesses to not only locate themselves there but also to collaborate with existing Victorian companies. The recently announced AU$ 41 million Innovation fund created by his administration to help harness research opportunities and to create momentum in the region is one of the examples he highlights of how the government helps innovation in Victoria.

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Role of government in promoting innovation.

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to pharmaventures business review here in Melbourne Australia. On this show I have the minister for environment climate change and innovation at the Victorian Government .

Gavin Jennings:

Thanks very much.

Fintan Walton:

We are here at AusBiotech in Melbourne and AusBiotech obviously is one of the key conferences that takes place here in Australia every year and clearly biotechnology is the key area of innovation and certainly Melbourne has an international reputation for innovation but for you a minister who has the portfolio under innovation so what the key question really is what role can government give to promoting innovation?

Gavin Jennings:

It's a very good question because many people think should government be in the business of getting in the way of research and development? should government be in the way of the commercialization of the results for that research and our answer is yes we should be involved and we see that in a variety of ways but certainly supporting the great intellectual capital that we have so we got the great knowledge base that we have coming through our medical research institutes of which Melbourne we are very rightly be proud of them. So we have a great tradition of great skills. We also actually see the very important need to providing key pieces of infrastructure to sort of a physical capabilities that what I mean by that is things like the synchrotron which is the most obviously the most famous but also providing making sure we have other places of essential place of infrastructure that can carry out the detailed fine grain work the leading edge technology that make sure that we can apply those and give rise to all researchers spreading their wings and breaking new grounds . So we see that so the human capability the physical capability and then of course the building on those collaborative till the way in which collaborations occur. So we have provided support to the sector to build collaborations here and around the world and so if we can find any way of trying to make those relationships work give meaning to them this way we think that there is a positive involving the government.

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Gavin Jennings

Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Innovation

Gavin Jennings is the Victorian Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Innovation, as well as Deputy Leader in the Legislative Council. He has a key role in both spearheading the Brumby Government's approach to tackling the threat of climate change and to drive technological and scientific advances in Victoria. Elected to the Legislative Council in September 1999, Mr Gavin Jennings became Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in 2002 and in 2006 was appointed Minister for Community Services and retained the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio. Before entering Parliament Gavin Jennings had a wide and varied work history, including experience as a Factory Worker, Actuarial Clerk, Actor, Social Worker and Policy Analyst. From 1981 to 1984 Gavin Jennings worked as a social worker at the Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy, between 1988 and 1992 he was a Ministerial Advisor to Kay Setches, John Cain and Joan Kirner and from 1994 to 1999 he worked as an Industrial Officer for the PublicTransport Union, Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, and the Electrical Trades Union Gavin Jennings gained a BA from Monash University in 1978 and a Bachelor of Social Work from Melbourne University in 1981.

Victorian Government

The Government of Victoria, under the Constitution of Australia, ceded certain legislative and judicial powers to the Commonwealth, but retained complete independence in all other areas. The Victorian Constitution says: "the Legislature of Victoria has full power and authority." In practice, however, the independence of the Australian states has been greatly eroded by the increasing financial domination of the Commonwealth. Victoria is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system. Legislative power rests with the Parliament of Victoria, which consists of the Crown, represented by the Governor of Victoria, and the two Houses, the Victorian Legislative Council and the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Executive power rests formally with the Executive Council, which consists of the Governor and senior ministers. In practice executive power is exercised by the Premier of Victoria and the Cabinet, who are appointed by the Governor, but who hold office by virtue of their ability to command the support of a majority of members of the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Council, or Upper House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit in Parliament House in Melbourne. It serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to its federal counterpart, the Australian Senate. Although it is possible for legislation to be first introduced in the Council, most bills receive their first hearing in the Legislative Assembly.