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Donald Trump's folly is a once-in-a-century opportunity for Australia

Peter Hartcher

Donald Trump has created a mess with his  immigration hit list. A great outcry of Australian voices is demanding that Malcolm Turnbull denounce the US President's move.

There is a better response. Expressing vicarious outrage through the medium of the Prime Minister might be emotionally satisfying but it's fated to be futile. 

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Turnbull soft on Trump

While other world leaders take a strong stand against Donald Trump's anti-immigration policy, our PM has tried to skirt the issue.

The leaders of Germany, Britain and France, some of the most powerful Republicans in the US and the greatest US technology corporations have all criticised Trump for the decision. Some countries are considering a retaliatory ban on Americans – foremost among them is Iraq, a key ally in the struggle against Daesh, the so-called Islamic State. What would a Turnbull statement accomplish that all this has not?

Rather than outrage, Australia should pursue advantage. America's mess is Australia's opportunity. 

The US has been the  global talent magnet for a century. It has reaped the best and brightest of the planet's scientists, entrepreneurs, sportspeople, professors, artists, chefs, traders and technicians. It has drawn many of Australia's best, too. 

This has been a source of incalculable strength to America. From Silicon Valley to Wall Street to Hollywood, every one of America's great generators of wealth and influence is powered by considerable numbers of talented foreigners.

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After less than a fortnight in power, Trump has sown enough fear and loathing to enfeeble America's magnetic pull. For many, attraction is turning into repulsion. 

In other words, Australia's biggest competitor for the best talent on earth is in a bit of trouble. And when your main competitor is in trouble, what do you do? You drive home your advantage.

Australia should take America's Trump trouble as a galvanising moment. Universities, corporations, industry associations, sports bodies, cultural institutions and governments should step up recruitment efforts to win the attention of an entire generation of ambitious and talented people who would normally have had their sights set on the US. And bring the best of them to Australia to top up our human capital.

Top-quality immigrants are a great prize. Of all the Nobel prizes awarded in the last third of the 20th century, 31per cent were won by immigrants, and, of those, a third were at US institutions, according to the World Bank.

"There is the possibility of opportunity in this reverse pivot by the Trump administration," says Australia's original venture capitalist, Bill Ferris, co-founder of CHAMP private equity and now the chief innovation adviser to the Turnbull government. "One thing is pretty clear – the multinational profile of Silicon Valley and its innovation is 40 to 50per cent not-born-in-America. It's a fact that immigration for the US has been a terrific driver of innovation, as it has here."

He's right. For instance, most of America's start-up ventures valued at over $US1billion were not founded by Americans but by foreigners, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. 

"Perhaps we can look to attract people who otherwise would have thought of Silicon Valley and other centres in the US. How do you do that? First, you stay open.  Second, you think creatively about visa programs for scientists and venture capitalists, which is already on the agenda" for Innovation and Science Australia, the advisory body Ferris chairs for the federal government.

Ferris, a 40-year veteran of the sector, observes that this is the most promising time for start-up ventures that Australia has seen. There are growing pools of capital, he says, through new joint government-industry funds like the half-billion dollar Biomedical Translation Fund and the $200million CSIRO Innovation Fund.

Superannuation fund managers are finally turning their minds to the growth prospects of the local start-up scene, too, says Ferris: "This all underscores the point of doing more to attract entrepreneurs from overseas because, when they get here, we can offer them more opportunities than we could have perhaps just a couple of years ago."

Australia already does well as a talent magnet, of course. Australia is the lifestyle superpower of the world. It has about as much wealth per person as America and all the freedoms but without the guns. 

It has much that America does not have, advantages like universal healthcare, paid parental leave, a government-subsidised university loan system. And safer streets.

In the annual Global Talent Competitiveness Index compiled by INSEAD, the French-based business school, Australia is ranked sixth. The top ranked nation is Switzerland, mainly because of its strength in developing its own homegrown talent. Second is Singapore, mainly because of its strength in attracting talent from abroad. Next are the UK, US and Sweden, followed by Australia.

So Australia can steal a march on Trump's America and recruit more top-quality global talent, but this index shows that we still have more work to do to boost our systems for nurturing, keeping and attracting the most highly skilled people on the planet.  

Taking advantage of Trump rather than impotently lecturing him is by far the better course for Australia. We can tend to our national interest while offering a better alternative to the best and brightest.   

One more point. The people who say they care about the benighted asylum seekers stuck in the camps in Nauru and Manus Island should have a keen interest in seeing the Turnbull government's resettlement deal with the US go ahead.

In his Sunday phone conversation with the Australian Prime Minister, Trump agreed to honour the deal and to accept the Australian outcasts, subject to security vetting. Do you really think publicly scolding Trump on his immigration policy at this juncture would be helpful? 

The US is currently ranked the world's number one nation in "soft power", its power of influence through attraction, according to the Monocle magazine index compiled by Britain's Institute for Government. Australia is ranked sixth. 

It'll be interesting to see whether the advent of President Trump knocks the US down a peg or two. Australia should take the opportunity to work its way up a peg or two. 

Peter Hartcher is international editor.

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