Mike O’Connor: Another Apollo moment as Qld pays $500m for PsiQuantum computer

When Queensland’s health system is in crisis and highways are death traps, you’d think there were better ways of spending taxpayer dollars, writes Mike O’Connor.

When you hear politicians comparing their achievements to flying to the moon then you know there’s an election looming.

Many years ago, I paused briefly in my incredibly boring job as a bank clerk to watch the grainy televised images of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Little did I realise then that courtesy of state Treasurer Cameron Dick, I would be so blessed as to witness a second Apollo moment in my lifetime with the announcement that the Queensland taxpayer was tipping about $500m into building a computer.

“This is our Project Apollo,” announced Mr Dick, referencing then-US president John F. Kennedy’s space program and in so doing winning the election-mode Hyperbole of the Month competition by the length of the straight at Eagle Farm racecourse.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also on hand and quick to fire back, dipping into the bag labelled Absurd Exaggerations and announcing that “this is a quantum leap into the next generation of technology … like the smartphone compared with the landline”.

Jeremy O’Brien, the co-founder of PsiQuantum, the Californian company, which, when the federal government’s contribution is included, will trouser $940m Aussie taxpayer dollars appeared to have been out-metaphored.

But he wasn’t going to go down without a fight, announcing that his company would “ignite the next Industrial Revolution … right here on Australian soil”.

Good grief. We live in exciting times here in Queensland – moon shots, life-changing technological breakthroughs and the spontaneous ignition of industrial revolutions.

US Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr on the moon in 1969. Picture: NASA/Getty Images

PsiQuantum co-founder Jeremy O’Brien with Dr Andrew Forrest. Picture: Supplied

When the bulldust had finally settled, and it took a while, more sober-minded souls were wondering why if the technology PsiQuantum was spouting was so marvellous, with the potential to harvest wealth of which not even internet tsars would dare to dream, it needed Aussie dollars to develop.

Surely international private equity firms would queue to get a slice of the action, but no.

Only Mr Dick, Premier Steven Miles and Mr Albanese had the perspicacity to realise what a good thing PsiQuantum was after everyone else had taken a look and decided to pass.

When was the last time the Queensland government celebrated an international coup?

Oh, that’s right. The 2032 Games, the ones that no other nation on Earth was interested in staging.

The finer details of the PsiQuantum deal, surprise, surprise, are obscured by claims of commercial-in-confidence.

But at a time when the health system staggers from crisis to crisis and major highways are death traps, you might think that there were better ways of spending taxpayer dollars than taking a punt on a highly speculative venture into technology that does not exist.

Former Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

While all concerned shook hands and congratulated themselves on what a grand deal had been done, another company backed by the Queensland government to the tune of several million dollars, local renewable energy firm Redback Technologies, was calling in the administrators after suffering big losses.

And Tritium, backed by the federal government to build electric vehicle chargers and hailed by the Prime Minister as “a great success story”, was closing the doors to its Brisbane factory with reported debts of about $260m.

When it comes to dishing out Queensland government cash, airlines are at the front of the queue.

Four years ago, everyone’s favourite chief executive Alan Joyce hinted that Qantas might relocate its heavy-maintenance facility away from Brisbane, causing Mr Dick to throw fistfuls of dollars at it as an inducement to stay.

Qantas took the money and then did what it had always intended to do which was to stay in Brisbane. It really was that easy.

US Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr on the moon in 1969. Picture: NASA/Newsmakers

To this day, the government refuses to say how much it handed over.

As revealed to a continuing Senate inquiry, we’re still paying airlines millions of dollars to fly here courtesy of the government’s $200m Attracting Aviation Investment Fund.

This allows the state government to claim credit for flights which will land here anyway if there is money to be made.

Perhaps we should not be too concerned because there is apparently so much cash splashing around in the Treasury’s coffers that the government can afford to give us all a $1000 electricity bill credit.

If you were wondering how much the government figures it needs to spend to buy your vote, that question has now been answered.

I await the arrival in the mail of a free kilo of pork sausages, along with a note inviting me to “Have A Sizzle With Steven”.

If you could live on the moon, I think I’d move there.