While many sectors of the business community have applauded the recommendations made by the National Commission of Audit, the private equity and venture capital sector has given key elements the thumbs-down.
The Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL) has described recommendations within the audit commission report to abolish innovation funding programs as "flawed" and demonstrative of "a lack of genuine commitment to fostering a stronger Australian economy in the future".
Commenting on the recommendations, AVCAL chief executive Yasser El-Ansary said the Commission of Audit had got it wrong.
"Abolishing key support programs such as the Innovation Investment Fund and Commercialisation Australia is not going to help our economy to become more innovative and more competitive into the future," El-Ansary said.
He said a small open market economy such as Australia needed to focus on assisting Australian businesses to compete on the world stage — something which was hugely important to bringing about productivity-enhancing reforms that would create more jobs and more economic growth in the years ahead.
El-Ansary said that it was in these circumstances that the Commission of Audit recommendations to abolish the Innovation Investment Fund and Commercialisation Australia had been made without there being any credible or compelling argument in support of the conclusions.
"What we wanted to see from this review was a comprehensive analysis of how government spending obligations can be re-prioritised to deliver greater economic efficiency and better long-term outcomes for Australian businesses," he said. "In the context of Australia's innovation system, the Commission looks to have fallen into the trap of taking a short-term view on cutting expenditure that will have a potentially devastating impact on our long-term prosperity."
