Innovation is the hottest buzz word in politics right now but for many people it's an eye-glazing topic.
Industry and Innovation Minister Christopher Pyne and his Labor counterpart Kim Carr spoke at the National Press Club on Monday about the millions of dollars their parties are investing in innovation and ideas.
One of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's early decisions in the top job was to launch a national innovation and science agenda, and his fondness for expressing what exciting times we live in has been widely noted.
"Ideas are the new currency," Mr Pyne told the innovation debate in Canberra.
"From something as simple as a redesigned clothing peg to a new type of shock absorber or a new way to get flour from bananas - I hear about them and I wish that I had come up with them."
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But Senator Carr acknowledged the very idea of a transforming economy makes many people anxious.
"Smooth-talking cliches are not going to do it here," he said.
"The challenge for an effective innovation agenda is to reshape the economy industry by industry, firm by firm so we can create the high-skilled, high-wage jobs that this country deserves."
Deep fears about the changing economy weren't unique to Australia, Senator Carr said.
They had led the the rise of Donald Trump in the US presidential campaign.
Both men talked about the need to recognise innovation went much wider than start-ups and the race to be the next Uber or Facebook.
Mr Pyne said it was most satisfying to see innovation happening in long-established companies, recognising that people couldn't just work longer hours to improve productivity but had to get more out of each hour.
"My job and the job of the Turnbull coalition government is to make it easier for the people with the ideas to realise them, commercialise them," he said.
