State Early Commercialisation Fund

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:29): Just to clarify, I have a further supplementary. They haven't applied for that fund yet, but once the fund manager has been appointed and is operational, which you say is a few weeks away, then those companies will be able to apply?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for his further supplementary. Yes, that is essentially the case. I suspect that if companies have only accessed tier 1 funding, that company is not going to be in a position to be investment ready for a venture capital firm, whether it is state backed or private equity venture capital, but certainly as companies progress through that early stage commercialisation process from tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3, you would expect in due course as they go through that pipeline that some companies will become investment ready for venture capital and will progress on to the Venture Capital Fund.

I would expect to see companies that had no involvement in the Early Stage Commercialisation Fund also being ready for investment in the Venture Capital Fund. I suspect it will also be the case that we will attract early stage companies to South Australia for the Venture Capital Fund investment as well.