Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

even more of a force for good, member for Wakefield, than it already is. That man is James Grugeon, and his business, The Good Beer Co, is working with organisations to find a social purpose for beer. It is a social enterprise that channels profits from beers into social purposes. There is a really great example. They have been doing work with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, one of Australia's leading environmental organisations, a society that is working tirelessly to do things like protect the Great Barrier Reef and protect and lobby for marine reserves. They are an amazing organisation. I have had a lot to do with them and I am always inspired when I get to talk with them. They have a collaboration with The Good Beer Co aimed at having people drink beer in order to support the Great Barrier Reef. You just could not think of a better thing to do on a Friday night than have a beer and at the same time support the Great Barrier Reef.

These are the sorts of new and innovative enterprises that are starting to emerge. The example I just gave was of a social enterprise, which is a particular type of enterprise that aims to have a social purpose, whether for profit or not. Most of them are for-profit enterprises—people who want to make money and do good, which I heartily support. Those sorts of new enterprises are fledgling in this country, but they can be incredibly successful if the policy settings are right. As I said, if the government wants to find inspiration for how to get those policy settings right, they are more than welcome to look at other parts of our policy that they might wish to mirror in the way that they have mirrored it in this bill for Innovate Australia. But they could also look to Queensland. I am a Queenslander, and I am a proud Queenslander. It is wonderful to be a Queenslander, not just because of our amazing history in winning the State of Origin so often, so many times, and not just because of people like Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith.

An honourable member: You always bring that up.

Yes, we do always bring this up. I will take that interjection. We certainly do always bring up our sporting prowess. But the other prowess that I want to mention is our prowess in supporting innovation and start-ups. I want to pay tribute to Minister Leeanne Enoch for the work she has done. Advance Queensland is aimed at making Queensland the nation's innovation leader, not just the State of Origin leader. It is a $405 million program that was announced this year to build on the work the Palaszczuk government has done since being elected. It feels like they have been there a long time, because they have achieved so much, but they were actually elected only in 2015. They have done so much in that time, and this package is so important because it really, as a budget centrepiece, is aimed at building on the work that has been done to diversify our Queensland economy. What I love about it is that it is taking the original Advance Queensland program, which was almost $200 million in investment in the government's first year as a government, and turning it into a whole-of-government plan—a whole-of-government innovation agenda worth $405 million.

Queensland is backing the innovators—start-ups, small business as well as schoolkids, farmers, scientists, researchers, tradespeople, engineers, doctors, teachers—to create a new era of opportunity. That is including work that is being done in the cities, including my city of Brisbane, but also in a way that is highly consistent with what federal Labor did, looking at how on earth we are going to help make sure that in the regions people have the same opportunities as kids in the cities have to really promote their good ideas and to turn them into good businesses.

One of the things that is being done is support for regional innovation hubs, including the Cairns Innovation Centre that is being established. We really support that, because we know that innovation should be something that improves economic activity and opportunities for the entire country, not just for people in the cities. So I want to commend the bill. Of course we support the bill, but it should go much further. It is too piecemeal. There is much more to be done, and there is plenty of inspiration from the Labor Party policies.

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