ALP accused of captain’s pick on $1bn PsiQuantum deal
US-tech company PsiQuantum signed a non-disclosure agreement with the government as part of secret discussions to build a $1bn quantum computer nearly five months before expressions of interests were opened, new documents reveal.
US-tech company PsiQuantum signed a non-disclosure agreement with the government as part of secret discussions to build a $1bn quantum computer nearly five months before expressions of interests were opened to other players, new documents reveal.
The opposition seized on new information provided by the Industry Department in response to questions on notice that showed PsiQuantum entered “non-binding discussions” with the commonwealth around June 2023, fuelling speculation the deal was under way long before the government approached other companies about their interest in August that same year.
Anthony Albanese and Queensland Premier Steven Miles in April announced the $1bn joint commitment to help PsiQuantum build the fault-tolerant quantum computer in Brisbane, with the Coalition raising questions over due process and the selection criteria used to pick the Californian-based firm. The opposition on Tuesday said the new documents showed “yet more evidence that the Albanese Labor government made a captain’s pick” in choosing PsiQuantum for the project.
According to the documents: “Non-binding discussions with PsiQuantum began after the technology investment taskforce in (the department) … was established in June 2023.
“PsiQuantum submitted a proposal to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Queensland government in November 2022. The commonwealth, represented by DISR, and PsiQuantum signed a mutual nondisclosure agreement on 21 March 2023.”
EOI’s for the other 21 quantum firms approached by government were open for just over a month, with the assessment of EOIs completed on September 25.
“Negotiations with PsiQuantum on the long form contracts began in late-February 2024,” the documents from the Industry Department read.
A spokesman for Industry Minister Ed Husic said Labor made “no apologies” for backing Australia’s economic future and ensuring its national security with the $1bn investment, which will be delivered through a combination of equity and loans.
“Our investment was made following a rigorous, lengthy due-diligence process involving comprehensive assessment across multiple areas, including legal, technical, financial and national security,” the spokesman said.
Opposition science spokesman Paul Fletcher said the documents supported the Coalition’s view that Labor had hand-picked PsiQuantum for the project and “months later sought to cover its tracks by establishing an expression of interest process which was reverse engineered from the outset to support the decision it had already made”.
“The Albanese Labor government and minister Ed Husic wholly failed to meet the normal standards of contestability, fairness and probity that should apply when taxpayers’ money is provided to privately owned businesses,” Mr Fletcher said. “Troublingly, at every turn the Albanese Labor government and Minister Husic have resisted providing information that taxpayers and citizens have a right to know. They have consistently failed to give clear and comprehensive answers to the many serious questions raised by this most unorthodox and irregular decision.”
Mr Fletcher last week asked the Australian National Audit Office to investigate whether the $1bn commitment by the Australian and Queensland governments to PsiQuantum was a “proper use of public resources”.
In a 10-page letter sent to Acting Auditor General, Rona Mellor, Mr Fletcher asked for an examination of whether the investment complied with section 71(1) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act.
This states that a minister must “not approve a proposed expenditure of relevant money unless the minister is satisfied, after making reasonable inquiries, that the expenditure would be a proper use of relevant money”.
More Coverage
Australia ‘flooding our aluminium market’: Trump’s top trade adviser
Donald Trump’s senior counsellor for trade has accused Australia of flooding the US market with aluminium and being too close with China, tempering hopes of an exemption from new 25 per cent tariffs.
‘Vile, sickening and shameful’: PM condemns anti-Semitic video
The Prime Minister has shared his revulsion over a video by two NSW Health Department staff threatening to kill Jewish patients and says they have been rightly sacked and should face the 'full force of the law'.