A quantum leap for taxpayers

The company at the centre of a $1bn venture capital investment made on behalf of taxpayers has confirmed the high-risk nature of the Albanese and Queensland governments’ decision. As chief political correspondent Geoff Chambers writes on Saturday, if everything works out as planned, the federal government believes it will be a legacy-defining decision for Labor.

But splashing out billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to private firms should not be about a potential legacy. It should be a decision taken with risks in mind and in the best interests of those who are actually putting up the money – taxpayers.

There is no doubt quantum computing is an exciting field of research. Governments, including China, the US and Britain, as well as the world’s biggest tech firms – Google, IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Amazon – are investing heavily in the race to be the first to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

President Xi Jinping has pledged $15.3bn to give China a competitive advantage. But, like commercial-scale fusion energy and other potentially transformative technologies, it remains in the realm of theoretical possibility rather than fact.

If successful, quantum computing will have the power to solve complex problems in chemistry, engineering, medicine and artificial intelligence. The fruits of success can only be imagined.

The US-based company at the centre of the project now part-funded by Australian taxpayers, PsiQuantum, is hopeful it will have a world-first project operational in Brisbane by the end of 2027. But PsiQuantum co-founder and chief scientific officer Pete Shadbolt told Chambers: “It doesn’t work yet. I think it’s just, overall, extremely exciting that there’s serious backing for getting it done.”

The company should be applauded for its ambition. But this does not give the Albanese government a free pass on how the deal was done. Its bet on PsiQuantum consists of an equity investment of $189.5m, with the remainder of the $470m comprising debt. The Queensland government has a similar arrangement, with a conditional $200m construction and term debt facility, and conditional $75m economic development and credit support facility.

The National Audit Office should push ahead with an investigation called for by opposition science spokesman Paul Fletcher.

Acting Auditor-General Rona Mellor has said a potential audit topic had been added to the 2024-25 work program. “This audit, if commenced, may include the Australian government’s investment in PsiQuantum,” she said.

Mr Fletcher said there were serious questions about whether the investment was an appropriate use of public money and whether it met “expected standards of probity, fairness and transparency”.

He asked whether it was a “proper use of public money to make an investment that will, with high likelihood, increase the value of the stake already held in PsiQuantum by a range of international and Australian venture capital funds, but which will only, with much lower likelihood, produce a positive commercial return on the investment made by the Australian government”.

It is possible to support PsiQuantum’s ambitions but demand proper accountability from government. Given the Albanese government’s stated intention to invest further billions in favoured industry and technology developments through its much criticised Future Made in Australia policy, it is important the PsiQuantum investment urgently be given the proper scrutiny that it deserves.