Wellington
Hypothetically speaking, say we’re all on the same page and all wanting more to happen aroundthe innovation space – you know, spend $X here and see a clear $Yreturn there.
Say too there’s been a suggestion for an Advanced Technology Institute – somewhat replicatedon overseas models – a better, faster link between industry needs and the country’s ability toprovide clever science and tech answers.
You carry on down a path which would see the broad-brush IRL proposals for the ATI begin to beput in place.
Then, a bit down the track, going back to a private-industry business model that allows you topull a lever here and you observe a result there, you think, ‘nah, let’s change the way we dothings totally, fundamentally’.
Hypothetically speaking, you’ve got this ATI creation thing happening.
Why not use that process as a cover, as a way to bring in a new system – one that nobody hadany idea was being proposed in the first place.
That would be a nice, subterfuge-type way to do it.
At the same time front what you’re still calling an ATI-creation with a person who only reportsto you.
Of course, having the ATI Establishment Unit only report to the Minister direct, with noinvolvement of the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (the former Ministry of Scienceand Innovation) whatsoever also avoids that messy consulting thing too, as does not talking toactual industry.
While we’re speaking theoretically too, we might as well put a rule in place that no one fromthe Establishment Unit is allowed to talk to, or have anything whatsoever to do with, the seniormanagement of Industrial Research Ltd.
At the same time, don’t put up any concrete idea of what…..(oh yeh, now we’ll call itCallaghan Innovation for that feel-good and distraction factor)…..the new body, structure orwhatever looks like, nor what its purpose will actually be.
In other words provide no idea of what CI’s ‘value proposition’ will be. Remember, we’reworking to a model that exists in someone’s head. Which in itself is kind of ironic, because thefirst core part of any innovation (no matter how it is defined) is market validation.
And just to make it really interesting and infuriating, say that all will be revealed, and onlycan be revealed (though there’s no reason why this has to be) on February 1.
That way it’s very difficult for the rest of us to object to something early, when we haveabsolutely no idea what we’re objecting to, (or alternatively endorsing).
This is another way of saying, speaking hypothetically, that the CI which is being forced upon usessentially in the blink of an eye, totally without consultation, is not democracy in action.
Steven Joyce may think that running the country is like running a company – but plenty ofministers have slipped up through assuming that. ……the law of unintended consequences comes tomind.
Just because a (super) minister wants something to happen, and has powers, doesn’t mean thatthey should be unilaterally applied.
The rumour is (and again, nobody knows) Callaghan Innovation is to be established as a CrownAgency – something that gives effect to Government policy (see
Mr Joyce may feel that simply establishing such a beast means his desire to make more money fromscience/tech investments will come to pass at his command.
But, given its genesis, a Callaghan Innovation (Agency) will be just as secretive, bureaucraticand self-centred as its more famous C.I.A. namesake – and be regarded just as warmly byscientists, industry and the public as a whole.
By creating the CIA in such an underhand way, without consultation, excluding some of the mainbrains behind the original ATI concept, and telling us nothing, any potential reform of ourinnovation ecosystem has been put behind two years at least.
That is the time it will take to realise, yet again, a specialised Advanced Technology Institute,working directly to and with industry, and not through a stultifying encumbrance like the CIA, iswhat the country does need.
Now, apparently too, the CIA business case is meant to be signed off by Cabinet on Friday.
I bet there’s some heroic numbers in that.
Not that they’ll have been stress tested.
Not that anyone with a modicum of experience in the innovation area will have had an opportunityto go, ‘whew, not sure about that assumption, those figures.’
Not that any of us have had the chance to question.
But perhaps you’re right Mr Joyce, keep us in the dark, no one will be any the wiser.
It is almost Christmas and holidays are around the corner….we can simply steam into the new CIAmess that’s been created early next year.