Perhaps the last place you would expect to see a reference to the new boss of the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources when you do a search on Google is Google’s own submission to a parliamentary committee that was looking at the establishment of the news media and digital platforms mandatory bargaining code.
Meghan Quinn, who has just been appointed to the Industry, Science and Resources gig, spent a large chunk of her public sector career in the federal Treasury in a range of roles.
It meant that Quinn was at the frontline of dealing with the bargaining code and the largest technological plays, including Google being asked to front parliamentary committee hearings to discuss how it operates and what concerns it had about coughing up some dough to media companies for their content it was freely republishing.
Committee hearings such as these allow the community to see some of what senior public servants such as Quinn do, because for the most part, they function in the background and just get things done.
Google cited Quinn’s evidence stating that Google was willing to work through issues in detail where the bargaining code was concerned.
Quinn did, however, say a little more than that about the state of play with the negotiations surrounding the legislation at that point in time when she was asked by then-senator Rex Patrick about the threat of Google moving its search function from Australia.
“They flagged they had concerns in their July submission to the ACCC’s draft code. At that time, they flagged that they had concerns, and that one of the options might be the changes to the offering of services in Australia,” Quinn told the February 1, 2021 hearing.
“In subsequent conversations, there have been discussions about what that might mean and what it might look like etcetera, and more information through the process. I’d say December was when they more clearly articulated — when they put it in the public domain — what their views might be.”
Quinn told the committee that the company was wanting to continue to provide services in Australia.
“But just to be really clear — and partly this is a response to earlier questions — Google has been very clear all the way through that it’s willing to work through issues in detail, and that they would like to continue to provide services to Australia. We’ve had ongoing discussions with them all the way through this process.”
Media bargaining codes were not the only prickly issue Quinn has had to deal with in her time at Treasury.
There was a time more than a decade earlier when she was the manager of the climate-change modelling unit and she had to bat away questions related to Treasury modelling on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme that was the subject of fierce debate at the time.
Then-senator David Feeney asked a question during a hearing that took place on 1 May 2009 about what constraints there were in the country transitioning to low-carbon energy sources.
Quinn told the committee that Treasury did examine capacity constraints in the economy to try and determine how quickly a movement to more environmentally friendly power sources could occur.
“Some of that is in the electricity generation sector and some in the transport sector. We did not find that we hit any of those barriers in the economic modelling, but we did consider them — certainly not in the first 10 to 20 years,” Quinn said.
That hearing also explored Treasury’s work in looking at different sources of energy and Quinn detailed modelling in response to senator Louise Pratt’s queries about whether the modelling “fully accounts for all the economic benefits of acting early” and what long-term competitive advantages exist for industries that move early.
Different technologies were explored, Quinn said, in the analysis of the electricity generation sector.
“That was quite detailed analysis and included possible solutions through advances in solar technology, geothermal technology and carbon capture and storage, as just three examples,” she said.
“We also did detailed analysis of the technology options going forward in the transport sector in terms of the possibility for improvements in energy efficiency and electrification of cars once electricity becomes low carbon.”
This part of Quinn’s background will no doubt play a critical role during the next three years as the Albanese government beds down its measures to meet the 43% carbon emissions target as well as moving Australian industries further along the road to adopting new technologies that are more friendly to the environment.
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