Quantum inquiry: ‘bring it on’, says Ed Husic

Industry Minister Ed Husic says he would welcome the Australian National Audit Office investigating the government’s deal with PsiQuantum.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic. Picture: Tom Parrish

Industry Minister Ed Husic says he would welcome the Australian National Audit Office investigating the government’s deal with PsiQuantum, declaring Labor “backs its investment” in the face of criticism from the Coalition that the California tech firm was selected as a “captain’s pick” and not through due process.

In an escalation of the spat between the government and opposition over the $1bn investment – jointly funded by the Queensland and federal governments through a combination of equity and loans – Mr Husic lashed ­opposition science spokesman Paul Fletcher for attempting to “wipe away” the Coalition’s procurement record.

“Mr Fletcher … made me think he had undergone one of the greatest bouts of self-hypnosis, wiping out all awkward ­memories of one of the loosest approaches to procurement: the Leppington land deal attached to development of Badgerys Creek Airport,” Mr Husic wrote in an article for The Weekend Australian.

“The idea the Liberal Party is flogging – that we just cracked our elbow onto a vending machine to pop out a quick and nasty decision – reflects more on how the Liberal Party did things in government than reality.”

Mr Fletcher has for months lashed Labor’s deal with PsiQuantum to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer in Brisbane, which he said was done secretly and with little transparency. In a letter to the ANAO last week, Mr Fletcher urged the national audit office to investigate whether the nearly $1bn commitment to PsiQuantum was a “proper use of public resources.”

In a 1-page letter sent on Tuesday, Mr Fletcher asked Acting Auditor General Rona Mellor to examine 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”.

Opposition science spokesman Paul Fletcher. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Fletcher also seized on information obtained through ­answers to questions on notice on Tuesday that showed PsiQuantum signed a non-disclosure agreement with the government nearly five months before expressions of interests were opened to other players.

He 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”.

But Mr Husic said he would welcome an investigation by the ANAO. “The opposition want this deal with PsiQuantum to be scrutinised by the ANAO. Good,” he wrote. “We back this investment and welcome any scrutiny of it.

The federal government’s $470m contribution to the PsiQuantum deal – made up of loans and equity, not politically dodgy grants we became used to under the Liberals – will be a critical investment in giving us access to phenomenal computing power to drive economic and national security. And it also signals our faith in Australian know-how, our respect for experts and a determination to not walk down a Liberal cul-de-sac of dodgy deals and missed opportunities.”

Mr Husic said the deal for the US-tech firm to build the quantum computer – which would be important for economic and national security – had undergone “exhaustive assessment”.