Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

In the limited time I have Mr Speaker I wanted to speak on something you and I both have an interest in, which is seeing the emergence of a strong innovative spirit within this country, and seeing enterprises be able to play their part in changing the way the economy works and the community works, as well. As part of that it was a real honour last night to be able to attend the launch of the inaugural StartupWeek Sydney, which was kicked off at Stone & Chalk, a fintech hub that has been set up in the AMP building in Sydney with the support, commendably, of the New South Wales government. This week will feature a whole series of events—hack-a-thons and policy discussions—and will also provide enterprises with the ability to connect with each other, to network, and be able to find out what makes other enterprises tick, what pitfalls they have experienced and how they can overcome them.

It is really good that StartupWeek Sydney, which has been driven in large part by Michelle Williams, with the support of Alex Scandurra of Stone & Chalk, was able to be set up. I think it is vital that we find ways to put a spotlight on the great work that start-ups are doing in this nation. It is good that both sides of politics are focused on this as a policy area, because, frankly, the work these enterprises are doing in liberalising the economy and in changing the way in which business models operate in this country is really important.

It is a challenge to government, in terms of thinking of new ways in which to make regulation work in this day and age. That will be the subject of one of the events I have the pleasure of being involved in. I understand that the member for Banks, David Coleman, is going to be involved in another event. It is good that we are engaging early on in this space, though, from their perspective, a lot of start-ups in this country would have liked both sides of politics to engage a lot sooner. But the fact of the matter is that we are engaged and we are listening.

Being able to have opportunities like StartupWeek Sydney, and the other events that are happening in other parts of the country, are a welcome development. I would like to commend them for putting it together. They have also put a great app together, which you can download from iTunes or from Google Play for your Android system. I commend them for this. If people would like to see it, it has been put together by a very good bunch of people there. I congratulate them and I wish them all the best for this important week.

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