There has never been a more exciting time to be in the Q&A audience.

In this week's innovation special, entrepreneurs, a quantum physicist and two political opponents came together to discuss the future of Australian business.

Here's four key topics the panel weighed in on:

First of all, what is this thing we call innovation?

Venture capitalist and consultant Sandy Plunkett raised a good point early on in the program: many people don't really understand what innovation is.

"Most people don't know what innovation means to them outside of the true believers at this table and probably in this audience. Mums, dads, educators — they don't know what that word 'innovation' means."

The panel cleared it up for those of us who were unclear.

Holly Ransom: "New opportunities meeting new needs, creating new markets in different areas." Michael Biercuk: "Sustainable innovation — long-term investment in science and technology, medium-term support for translational research and shorter-term investment." Ed Husic: "As a nation we are hard-wired to be innovative. We have had to problem solve to survive in an isolated continent where supply lines have been very distant. We have had to make do with what we've got."

How do we get Australians to invest in innovation? Less tax, more infrastructure

Stepping up to the plate for the Government, Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy argued that there needed to be a cultural shift to get Australians thinking about innovation.

"We need a cultural exchange, to embrace more risk, accept failure, celebrate success, think about how we attract more capital, particularly private sector capital for investment into the start-ups you are talking about, greater collaboration between start-ups and industry."

Another idea raised was looking at tax-free periods for start-ups.

Opposition innovation spokesman Ed Husic and Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy went head to head on their respective policies. ( Q&A )

Wyatt Roy: "I'm a Liberal, I'd like to see lower taxes, less regulation, less government intervention in your life so you can do what you do so well which is be an incredible world-changing entrepreneur, that's where I think the debate should go … these sorts of tax changes we will have to do over four, five, six budgets but if we keep ourselves ahead of the global race, I am optimistic." Ed Husic: "We on the Labor side did say that taking into account that, what could we do to change our tax system to see more capital move into this space?"

The panel all seemed to be in agreement that the focus should spread from the major capital cities out into the regions.

Holly Ransom: "It is critical we think about how we move the focus away from the capital cities. Most of the benchmarking is based on Sydney … We need to grow other capital cities and grow our regions as hubs too." Wyatt Roy: "The people that have the big policy levers are local governments. ... I want our cities to compete to be global innovation hubs so they put themselves at the front of the pack."

Quantum physicist Michael Biercuk said it was the big-ticket items that would give us the most bang for our buck.

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"If you are a start-up and you want to do something in the hardware space, it is very hard to invest in a building that costs $150 million or a single laboratory like mine which is so well shielded from its investment that it indeed costs $10 million to assemble in full. "That infrastructure, in the way we have designed, is designed in such a way that it can be accessed by outside organisations from private industry, from start-ups and the like. "This infrastructure is what makes the next 30 to 50 years of science possible. Without it it is absolutely impossible and we will be doing start-ups in software for 20 years and then running out of steam. You can't do this kind of research in a teenager's bedroom."

Which brings us to: the NBN

One audience member questioned the Abbott/Turnbull government's approach the National Broadband Network, which he called "a cornerstone investment in the country's infrastructure to drive the innovation ecosystem".

Wyatt Roy and Opposition innovation spokesman Ed Husic had a bit of a showdown.

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Wyatt Roy on Labor's original plan: "I don't think there is any point, as a country, in saying 'you are going to wait a very, very long time' to those sorts of people who are excluded from this conversation, ... [those who are] 40 minutes from a capital city with dial-up speeds."

Ed Husic on the Coalition's NBN: "Well, we're going to have an ideas boom after we get through the buffering, basically. "When Malcolm Turnbull took over as communications minister, we were ranked 30 in terms of broadband speeds. Now we are ranked at 60. Most people would be demoted with a record like that, he got promoted to Prime Minister."

Michael Biercuk had this to say:

"It was obvious from the beginning anything other than fibre would not possibly deliver what was promised. Really the debate is about how much the Government wants to invest public dollars in building infrastructure." "It is not about who delivered it on time or under budget because nobody does, it is always more expensive. It will be expensive but if the population values it and we say that, then this debate will stop."

Finally, what's the future like for women in innovation?

There were several women in the audience this evening who raised questions about what the future holds for women in innovation and what could be done to get more women into the industry.

Sandy Plunkett kicked things off by saying there were more women graduating from STEM — science, technology, engineering and maths — courses post-World War II than there are today.

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Sandy Plunkett: "There is a historical reason for why there are so few women pursuing these roles. An engineering-centric world — Silicon Valley, Israel, whatever — they were started by men. Women have typically not played in that space. "[Women] are often perceived as not having the right blend of tech skills and business or financial savvy. While tech skills and financial savvy are very important in growing a business, so are social skills and design skills and a whole heap of other things women are just as good at. "We are not represented well because I think there is a lot of unconscious bias that is going on in many, many careers but I think it is exacerbated in tech."

Host Tony Jones asked fellow panellist Holly Ransom whether media portrayals of "guys with hoodies in front computers tapping away" also contributed.