The Australian Government's Innovation Report

Compared to the 2004 scorecard Australia increased its position within the OECD in:
• broadband subscribers (4 places);
• investment in venture capital (2 places);
• internet users (2 places);
• number of US patents (1 place); and
• business sector expenditure on R&D (1 place).
Australia has decreased its position within the OECD in:
• scientific and technical articles (1 place);
• tertiary education (2 places);
• investment in ICT (1 place);
• international science and engineering collaboration (1 place); and
• average annual multifactor growth (3 places).
Figure 4 compares Australia with the OECD leader’s performance for each indicator. This shows that Australia
is well placed compared to the leader with respect to internet usage, venture capital, investment in ICT, science
graduates in the labour force, and the proportion of innovating businesses but is significantly behind the
OECD leader with respect to patenting in the US, business expenditure on R&D, multifactor productivity,
and broadband subscribers.
FIGURE 4: Australia’s innovation performance compared to the OECD leader, 2006 scorecard
Public R&D
Scientific & technical articles per capita
US patents per capita
Business R&D
Tertiary education
Science graduates in employment aged 25-34
Researchers in labour force
Venture capital
Investment in ICT
Internet usage
Broadband subscribers
Investment in new equipment
Novel innovators with collaboration activity
International S&E collaboration
MFP growth 1999-2003
Innovation turnover as a percentage of total sales
Proportion of innovating businesses
Businesses selling over the internet
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Ratio to OECD Average
Sources: See Table 13.
Australia
OECD leader
130 Backing Australia’s Ability