17 OCTOBER

Trump compares Saudi allegations to Kavanaugh

US President Donald Trump has linked global condemnation of Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to allegations of sexual assault levelled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump warned of a rush to judgement over allegations by Turkish officials that Khashoggi – a US permanent resident and critic of Saudi leaders, particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – was murdered in the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate.

“Here we go again with you know you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that," Trump said during an Oval Office interview Tuesday. "We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned. So we have to find out what happened.” The president suggested Monday that “rogue killers” could be behind Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The New York Times reports that one of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of Khashoggi was a frequent companion of the crown prince. Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the prince’s security detail. 

NEWS WRAP

Midterms blame game

• President Trump says he won't accept blame if Republicans lose the House in November's midterm elections. In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, he said he thinks the GOP are “going to do well”, arguing that “it feels to me very much like [2016]". Trump also used the interview to accuse longtime attorney Michael Cohen of “lying” under oath, and defended calling adult film star Stormy Daniels “horseface”. Asked if it was appropriate to insult a woman’s appearance, Trump responded, “You can take it any way you want”. READ MORE HERE.
   

• The White House is said to be delighted by Prime Minister Scott Morrison's openness to a potential Jerusalem embassy relocation and has suggested Australia join President Trump's assault on the Iran nuclear deal. The Australian Financial Review reports that the Trump administration has also welcomed the Australian government's decision to join the United States and Israel in opposing a UN resolution to give the Palestinian UN delegation more rights and privileges. READ MORE HERE.
   

• Two accounts of life in two very different White Houses are currently on book shelves across the country, and visiting fellow Stephen Loosley reviewed both for The Australian. The first is headline-grabbing Bob Woodward book, Fear: Trump in the White House. It's accompanied by a White House memoir from Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser and speechwriter. Loosley calls Rhodes' book "the most engaging of this genre since Peggy Noonan published her account of Ronald Reagan’s presidency". READ MORE HERE.
   
• Likely 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren is copping criticism from the left and right after trying to defuse a Trump-driven controversy over her past claims of Native American ancestry. Warren released DNA test results and a video on Monday trying to blunt President Trump’s frequent mocking of her as “Pocahontas”, but the media campaign seems to have created as many headaches for her as it alleviated. READ MORE HERE.
   
• The emerging push for a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a cause which has little prospect of achieving the goal of a nuclear-free world, but might undermine a cause which does, according to Shadow Defence Minister Richard Marles. He wrote for the Centre's website this week on why the treaty is not in Australia’s interests — and how it would undercut the US-Australia alliance and genuine non-proliferation efforts. READ MORE HERE.
   
• With the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds rising to a seven-year peak of nearly 3.25 per cent, many bond market bears will be feeling a sense of belated vindication. But the story behind rising long-term interest rates has little to do with their preferred script, according to Trade and Investment program director Stephen Kirchner in Business Insider. READ MORE HERE.

I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth. 

President Donald Trump on his Defense Secretary James Mattis
(60 Minutes interview)
14 October 2018

ANALYSIS

Increasing investment in AgTech pivotal to our economic success

Benjamin Saling
Research associate, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Agricultural technology, or AgTech, is crucial to the future of Australian agriculture and continued economic prosperity in Australia. AgTech start-ups will create high-skilled jobs across our cities and regions, as new cutting-edge technologies developed in Australia will be used both in Australian agriculture and exported globally. Australia has a strong public R&D system in agriculture. It also has many natural advantages making it an excellent testbed for agricultural technologies, including a diversity of agricultural environments and harsh conditions, innovative farmers, a counter-cyclical seasonal pattern to the Northern Hemisphere and a similar supply chain to the United States.

Australia should be an AgTech powerhouse but lagging levels of investment relative to our global peers constrain that growth. In 2016, per capita investment from the private sector in world-leading AgTech nations, the United States and Israel, were both around 50 times larger than that of Australia.

The United States Studies Centre has tracked investments in Australian AgTech to develop an understanding of the Australian AgTech investment market, with a view to benchmark this research against similar studies conducted in the United States and on a global level. The original research found alarming trends in the amounts of financing received in the Australian AgTech sector and the way in which financing occurs.  

Investment activity in Australian AgTech experienced significant growth in the past few years – total investment in 2017 increased by nearly 150 per cent from the year prior. Yet, our research found that investment in Australia’s AgTech sector has been largely driven by government and accelerator-led financing, typically valued less than A$1 million. In 2017, nearly 90 per cent of Australian AgTech investments were below A$1 million in value. This is the sort of financing that helps get companies off the ground in the initial stages of development, however higher value investments are required to allow companies to bring technologies to market.

To put these figures in a global context: investments of US$10 million or more accounted for a quarter of global AgTech venture capital (VC) investments in 2017, an increase from around 12 per cent in 2013. VC has been key to the investment success of AgTech overseas, yet this asset class has been relatively absent from the Australian AgTech investment market.

In our research, we have put forward a number of recommendations which we believe can increase the amount of venture capital attracted by Australian AgTech companies. The first is to create incentives for multinational agricultural corporations to establish major R&D operations in Australia. Corporate R&D centres are critical to the expansion of innovation ecosystems and their presence can create entrepreneurs with significant product management and commercialisation expertise.

It is particularly in the realm of biological chemistry and biological science where agrichemical and agrifood multinationals could stimulate product development and commercialisation of profitable technologies. These are technology areas which receive particularly low levels of financing in Australia, compared to the digital technology segments, which account for 86 per cent of investment dollars in Australian AgTech.

Secondly, Australia can incentivise AgTech-specific VC firms in the US to bring the necessary expertise and capital to sustainably grow Australia's AgTech ecosystem. VC is an asset class that has been critical to the establishment of world-class innovation ecosystems in the United States and other highly innovative economies. The AgTech ecosystem on the West Coast of the United States is the most expansive in the world, accounting for nearly 37 per cent of VC invested in AgTech globally between 2010 and Q2 2017. An asset to the ongoing success of the West Coast ecosystem is a class of VC firms dedicated entirely to investment in AgTech. Without follow-on funding in the form of higher value investments, VCs and Australian AgTech companies will not succeed in generating revenues and expanding globally.

Finally, we have recommended Australia establish technology-specific accelerator and investment hubs. AgTech venture capital investment in the United States has often been led by specialist AgTech investors. This generates confidence amongst more generalist investors who are willing to back lead investors with large capital pools.

If Australia’s AgTech start-up community was better organised into sub-communities focused on highly-specific technology areas, centred around accelerators specialising in the respective technology areas, we could more effectively attract lead investors with relevant sectorial expertise. The promises of a strong local AgTech sector for the future prosperity of Australia are certainly enticing. However, this 21st century industry will be no more than science fiction if we don’t lift our game on the investment front.

Read the USSC's full report, Australian AgTech: Opportunities and challenges as seen from a US venture capital perspective, here.

DIARY

The week ahead

• Wednesday, 17 October: President Trump is scheduled to award the Medal of Honor to retired Sgt. Maj. John L. Canley for his actions during the Vietnam War.
   

• Wednesday, 17 October: Canada will become the first major industrialised country to fully decriminalise cannabis for recreational use.
   

• Thursday, 18 October: Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Montana.
   

• Friday, 19 October: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is due for a court hearing in Virginia.
   

• Monday, 22 October: United States Studies Centre holding a midterm elections briefing in Parliament House, Canberra.

EVENT

Women in foreign policy

VIDEO

Kanye West delivers 10-minute monologue in meeting with President Trump

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#SaudiArabia

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University of Sydney NSW 2006

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