Speaker 1: From Shorts Media on Rick Morton, This is seven am.
Speaker 1: In high security labs from Silicon Valley to Mainland China,
Speaker 1: researchers are racing to be the first to bring about
Speaker 1: what has been dubbed Q Day. On that day, all
Speaker 1: encryption and security could be laid bare, and the Internet
Speaker 1: could essentially break the deepest plans of militaries around the world.
Speaker 1: All of their medical records and private encrypted conversations could
Speaker 1: be exposed. And that's because Q Day is the day
Speaker 1: the most powerful machine ever imagined comes online, the first
Speaker 1: fault free quantum computer. No one knows whether it's months
Speaker 1: or decades away. Today, special correspondent for the Saturday Paper,
Speaker 1: Jason Kotsukas on why Australia wants to join the race
Speaker 1: and why one company got the billion dollar deal to
Speaker 1: do it. That's coming up the break. Jason Einstein thought
Speaker 1: some of the implications of quantum physics were downright spooky
Speaker 1: when he first heard about them, and it seems fitting
Speaker 1: that the global race to build a quantum computer on
Speaker 1: these theories is just as strange and compelling. What's the
Speaker 1: promise of the technology.
Speaker 2: It's a great question, Rick, I must say, I've always
Speaker 2: been interested in the idea of a quantum computer because
Speaker 2: you hear so much promise.
Speaker 3: The quantum computer pushes the limits of knowledge, new science,
Speaker 3: new engineering, all leading to this processor that computes with
Speaker 3: the atomic forces that created the universe.
Speaker 2: You know, these are incredibly fast machines that you know.
Speaker 2: What we're told is that such a device, you know,
Speaker 2: like this could help address some of the world's biggest problems,
Speaker 2: you know, climate change, food security.
Speaker 1: If we think about what quantum computing is going to
Speaker 1: be capable of, that's the kind of stuff we're thinking about.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, you see, quantum computers are the ultimate computers
Speaker 4: because they're competing on atoms. If there are aliens in
Speaker 4: out of space, and I think there are, it means
Speaker 4: that they also have perfected quantum computers.
Speaker 2: And then perhaps on a more negative side, these computers
Speaker 2: are so powerful that they could in a sense, you know,
Speaker 2: break the Internet, crack all of the cryptography that we
Speaker 2: use every day to secure our data. Fundamentally, this is
Speaker 2: a world changing race to develop the world's first quantum computer.
Speaker 4: We're looking at a race a race between China between IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell.
Speaker 5: President Jinping has said research and development in quantum science
Speaker 5: is an urgent matter of national concern and the Tree
Speaker 5: has invested heavily in this technology, spending billions in recent years.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a race between the United States and China.
Speaker 2: You know, will the US or China get there first.
Speaker 2: Suddenly it seems like Australia is in this race as well.
Speaker 1: This is a quantum leap into the next generation of
Speaker 1: technology right here in Queensland.
Speaker 3: For Queensland.
Speaker 2: This is our moonshot for Queensland, this is our Project Apollo.
Speaker 2: The go leading this push is Ed Husick. He's the
Speaker 2: Minister for Industry and Science. He's also one of the
Speaker 2: government's best plane speaking communicators.
Speaker 6: Current classic computing it can do a lot, and I
Speaker 6: know there will be a lot of you that think
Speaker 6: that AI and computers at the moment can achieve a lot,
Speaker 6: but they're going to hit a ceiling and quantum computing
Speaker 6: will break through that, coming up with new ways to
Speaker 6: find new drugs to help us in the transition to
Speaker 6: net zero.
Speaker 2: And Ed Huzick says that by betting a billion dollars
Speaker 2: on this psy quantum company, which is based in California,
Speaker 2: that Australia is suddenly at the head of this race.
Speaker 1: Because that is what is at stake here. The government
Speaker 1: has announced that this Californian based company, psy Quantum, is
Speaker 1: going to produce the world's first useful useful quantum computer
Speaker 1: right here in Brisbane, you know, just up the road
Speaker 1: from where I am. Now, what have they announced exactly
Speaker 1: and why have they gone overseas?
Speaker 2: So what they've announced is that the Australian Government and
Speaker 2: the Queensland government will invest almost a billion dollars. It's
Speaker 2: going to be half from the Commonwealth and half from
Speaker 2: the Queensland Government, and that money is going to be
Speaker 2: a mixture of loans and equity. So Australian taxpayers will
Speaker 2: actually have a stake in this company. In twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: it was valued at about five and a half billion
Speaker 2: dollars Australian. So if they manage to build the world's
Speaker 2: first useful quantum computer in Brisbane and it can do
Speaker 2: all the things that you know we hear about, then
Speaker 2: I think the value of that stake that Australian taxpayer's
Speaker 2: own wills will certainly increase in value.
Speaker 7: You've got people like Jeremo O'Brien and Terry Rudolph who
Speaker 7: founded PSI Quantum in twenty fifteen. They left our shores because,
Speaker 7: as is often the case, we've got Australians with great
Speaker 7: ideas that don't get the backing, and it's other countries
Speaker 7: that recognize their value before us.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that Jeremy O'Brien has
Speaker 2: said is the impact of quantum computing is going to
Speaker 2: be more profound than any technology to date. And I
Speaker 2: think that's a really good quote. It kind of says
Speaker 2: it all. It's something that's going to be more powerful,
Speaker 2: have more impact than artificial intelligence.
Speaker 8: I believe the term impossible will soon be banished from
Speaker 8: our field. We can see the path forward, a path
Speaker 8: towards cleaner skies and seas and life saving drugs developed
Speaker 8: faster than ever before. This quantum age is fast approaching
Speaker 8: and it will be molded by Australian hands.
Speaker 2: I guess the other thing we know is though that
Speaker 2: a lot of venture capital bets don't pay off, and
Speaker 2: if Psyquantum can't do what they say they can do,
Speaker 2: then I think that's going to have repercussions for this
Speaker 2: labor government and also for ed Husick, because they're promising
Speaker 2: to build it by twenty twenty seven. So if Anthony
Speaker 2: Albinezi wins the election next year, they'll still be in
Speaker 2: government in twenty twenty seven and taxpayers are going to
Speaker 2: start demanding results.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit more to this story, I think,
Speaker 1: which is precisely how Psyquantum came to be awarded the contract.
Speaker 1: Can you walk me through I guess the timeline of
Speaker 1: what happened and what decisions were made before Psychoontum was
Speaker 1: even granted this opportunity.
Speaker 2: You know, it's my understanding that Ed Musick began having
Speaker 2: very informal discussions with people connected to psy Quantum in
Speaker 2: the second half of twenty twenty two, and he moved
Speaker 2: pretty quickly. Ed Musick had a few meetings with, you know,
Speaker 2: different people who were connected to Piquantum, and it didn't
Speaker 2: take much longer for him to say, Okay, why don't
Speaker 2: I go over to California and have a look at
Speaker 2: this company, meeting the people at si Quantum face to face,
Speaker 2: having a tour of the headquarters, and as soon as
Speaker 2: he got back he said to his department, let's get
Speaker 2: to work on this. And that's exactly what happened. But
Speaker 2: I think one Siquontum knew that they had ed music
Speaker 2: on the hook. They went and engaged some pretty powerful
Speaker 2: lobbyists who are quite close to the Labor Party, you know,
Speaker 2: people like Richard Miles's former chief of staff and Jared Richardson,
Speaker 2: who ran Labors communications team for the twenty nineteen election.
Speaker 2: And then they also commissioned an economic impact report from Mandala.
Speaker 2: This is another consultancy that's close to the Labor Party.
Speaker 2: Amidst seeing the managing partner at Mandala, he was Bill
Speaker 2: Shorton's deputy chief of Policy. He was a senior economic
Speaker 2: advisor to Julie Gillard and Rudd. So psyde Quantum, they
Speaker 2: got some pretty influential lobbyists who've certainly got the year
Speaker 2: of some very powerful people in the government.
Speaker 1: After break. What the reaction has been in Canberra to
Speaker 1: the government putting so many eggs in one Quantum basket. So, Jason,
Speaker 1: you've been looking at how Psy Quantum won this big
Speaker 1: deal and around the same time in some pretty influential lobbis.
Speaker 1: Did you find anything else out as you looked a
Speaker 1: little bit deeper into it?
Speaker 2: So Psy Quantum first approached the Australian government through Ostrade
Speaker 2: I think as early as twenty nineteen, you know, trying
Speaker 2: to attract the interest of the you know, the then
Speaker 2: Morrison government to say this is a company that's worth
Speaker 2: investing in. The Morrison government did take a look at it.
Speaker 2: They said no the first time. Psy Quantum came back
Speaker 2: a number of times, and then in twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: when the Australian venture capital firm Blackbird got involved. I
Speaker 2: think psy Quantum, you know, came back to the government again.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two when Anthony Albiniti became Prime Minister.
Speaker 2: I think psy Quantum thought, well, new government, new opportunity
Speaker 2: to try to get someone interested in this idea. When
Speaker 2: it comes to Blackbird, the Australian venture capital firm, Ed
Speaker 2: Husick appointed to the National Quantum Advisory Committee a senior
Speaker 2: associate at Blackbird. Her name is Claire Birch. And then
Speaker 2: in December last year he appointed another Blackbird executive, the
Speaker 2: head of Impact and also the operating principal at Blackbird.
Speaker 2: Her name is Kate Glazebrook, and Minister Husick appointed her
Speaker 2: to the seven member Industry, Innovation and Science Australia Board,
Speaker 2: which advises the government on science, innovation and research matters
Speaker 2: and is responsible for the promotion of investment in industry.
Speaker 2: You know, Ed Husick has been at pains to emphasize that,
Speaker 2: in his view, both of these committees very much at
Speaker 2: arms length from the decision to invest in Side Quantum.
Speaker 2: One thing we've been very careful to emphasize in this
Speaker 2: story is we're not saying that there is a conflict
Speaker 2: of interest in some of these relationships. But I think
Speaker 2: often in politics it's the perception of a conflict of
Speaker 2: interest that becomes the issue. More transparency was something that
Speaker 2: Anthony I be easy promised in opposition, and I think
Speaker 2: there are certainly questions to be asked here and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, Australian taxpayers need to be satisfied that this
Speaker 2: process was fair, open and transparent as possible.
Speaker 1: Jason, we've been talking about this massive ambition of building
Speaker 1: the first useful quantum computer. The deal has been made
Speaker 1: with psy Quantum. There's been a little bit of kind
Speaker 1: of scuttle about that deal. What's the reaction been in
Speaker 1: camera to the announcement.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people were staggered by the
Speaker 2: size of the investment in this company. You know, this
Speaker 2: is almost unprecedented that an Australian government, in association with
Speaker 2: the Queensland government would invest so much taxpayer funds into
Speaker 2: the one company. So when it was announced, the immediate
Speaker 2: reaction from people like Paul Fletcher, the Opposition's spokesman for Science,
Speaker 2: he was absolutely flabbigasted.
Speaker 9: This process has been clouded in secrecy. There was there
Speaker 9: was no public, transparent expression of interest process to call
Speaker 9: for applications. A small number of companies, as I understand it,
Speaker 9: were invited to participate, but they were required to sign
Speaker 9: non disclosure agreements and he.
Speaker 2: Wasn't the only one. Well, we haven't seen it publicly
Speaker 2: because a lot of the quantum computing people here in
Speaker 2: Australia are dependent on federal government funding. But their reaction, well,
Speaker 2: publicly people have been saying this is a good idea
Speaker 2: and they've backed it. Privately, there's a lot of anger
Speaker 2: and concern that the federal government is putting so much
Speaker 2: money into one saying, gee, I thought money was scarce
Speaker 2: and there wasn't any kind of money for us, but
Speaker 2: suddenly the government's gone and given a billion dollars to
Speaker 2: one company, and they are saying, well, why not spread
Speaker 2: this money around and give us all a more equal
Speaker 2: chance of developing quantum computing in Australia. So I think
Speaker 2: people were really shocked and surprised at the size of
Speaker 2: the investment.
Speaker 1: And of course I can't help but notice the symmetry
Speaker 1: between psy Quantum's attempts at trying every possible available route
Speaker 1: to get government interested in making the investment and the
Speaker 1: technology itself, which is allowing a quantum computer to try
Speaker 1: every conceivable calculation in as few steps as possible. Did
Speaker 1: we make the right decision in going with psy Quantum
Speaker 1: given this race is so important.
Speaker 2: Well, this might be a case like Blue Poles. You know,
Speaker 2: the painting that off Whitlam brought to much public outcry
Speaker 2: for a million dollars in the nineteen seventies. The value
Speaker 2: of Bluepoles today has been a great return on that investment,
Speaker 2: despite the controversy at the time. We might say the
Speaker 2: same thing happened with psy Quantum, that this big stake
Speaker 2: that we've taken in si Quantum. Yes, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of outcry. Now in twenty years we might be saying
Speaker 2: this is one of the best investments the Australian government's
Speaker 2: ever made. But it's impossible to know that now. And
Speaker 2: there's also a big chance that this company might not
Speaker 2: be able to do what it says it can.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, it's CUBID set one thousand paces.
Speaker 1: That's right, Jason, Thank you so much for taking the
Speaker 1: time to steak with me today.
Speaker 2: Rick, It's been a great pleasure to speak with you.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, Australia has a new governor general. Lawyer,
Speaker 1: businesswoman and former AFL commissioner Sam Mostyn was sworn in yesterday.
Speaker 1: She's only the second woman to hold the position. And
Speaker 1: President Joe Biden met with his family at Camp David
Speaker 1: yesterday to discuss the prospect of dropping out of the
Speaker 1: presidential race. Who has been reported the family has merged
Speaker 1: with a resounding view of continuing in the campaign. The
Speaker 1: New York Times has reported the most adamant voice in
Speaker 1: the room was his son Hunter Biden, who argued voters
Speaker 1: needed to meet the Joe Biden that he knows. Hunter
Speaker 1: was convicted of felony weapons charges last month.