The Palaszczuk Government’s Minister for State Development, Dr Anthony Lynham, has released a discussion paper on “the first step towards building a bigger club of Queensland biomedical and life science high fliers.”
The discussion paper - Queensland Biomedical and Life Sciences 10 Year Roadmap - is asking Queensland’s biomedical and life sciences sector what they need to become a world leader in the next 10 years.
Industry-led support for the Australian Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Incentive is discussed on page 18 of the paper. Questions 9 and 10 on Federal tax incentives will be of interest to Queensland’s biotechnology sector. Question 9 asks: How important is the R&D Tax Incentive in attracting and retaining companies in Australia? How would industry be affected by a change to the R&D Tax Incentive? Question 10 asks: How would the AIM patent-box incentive benefit industry?
Minister Lynham said: “Queensland is already home to a handful of large multinational biomedical manufacturing businesses such as Alphapharm, Cook Medical and Patheon.
“We want to generate the high-tech jobs of the future by taking our growing community of start-up companies to a national and global level.
“This is about generating input from industry, academia and the community about how and where we can turn ideas into products and start-ups into leaders to generate jobs and business opportunities for Queensland.”
Biomedical and life sciences sector is one of the Queensland’s Government’s six priority sectors identified as growth targets under Advance Queensland, along with advanced manufacturing, aerospace, biofutures, defence, mining equipment, technology and services. Roadmaps and action plans are being developed for all of them, with biofutures released last month.
The discussion paper has included initial independent advice from the Advance Queensland Expert Panel, who will also contribute to the development of the roadmap and action plan.
To view the discussion paper and make a submission or to register your interest in attending a consultation session visit: www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/biomedical
Consultation sessions will be held in Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns, Maroochydore, Southport, Springfield, Toowoomba and Townsville.
Consultation on the discussion paper is open until Friday 5 August 2016. AusBiotech is preparing a submission with the AusBiotech Queensland Branch committee and comment from AusBiotech members can be directed to Chief Industry Affairs Officer, Lorraine Chiroiu (lchiroiu@ausbioetch.org or 0429 801 118) by Friday 29 July 2016.
Read the statement from the Hon. Anthony Lynham, Minister for State Development, here.