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

I want to draw to the House's attention a terrific initiative, the Top End IDEAS FEST, hosted last month by our friend and colleague the member for Solomon. It was the first ever community-led innovation festival in Darwin. Emerging entrepreneurs were able to come along with their ideas, be mentored by business community leaders in a wide variety of fields, develop pitching skills and build their own networks for help and assistance down the track.

The day was a great success. There was a fantastic turnout and a huge breadth of ideas, including an interactive historical attraction for Darwin, a start-up Indigenous tech company and a program to revitalise an under-utilised sports centre in Darwin. All of these things came out of the Top End IDEAS FEST. The calibre of ideas as well as the talent waiting to be unearthed in the Top End are truly incredible. It was inspiring to see the number of people that came out on the day and to see the passion of the people behind it.

I want to thank the sponsors and acknowledge the organisers, particularly Rust490, Think Smart NT, Thinklab, Cloud Mine, Google Indonesia, the mighty NT News, the Northern Territory government, Mix FM, Charles Darwin University, Telstra, Quest Palmerston, Darwin Airport and Paspalis. Paspalis have subsequently been awarded a $500,000 regional innovation grant to establish a Darwin innovation hub. Thank you to all of the participants. I look forward to joining the next Top End IDEAS FEST.

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