Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to speak today in support of the Education Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021, because I have two fantastic universities within my electorate. I'm very privileged to be the member for Boothby, which is a suburban electorate with not one but two wonderful institutions that do a lot of fantastic work for the South Australian community, the South Australian economy and the nation. They both make an international contribution, as well.

So I am delighted that our bill today will see funding going to the Australian Research Council and will demonstrate our continued support for the ARC. The bill will make sure that the ARC can continue to operate. It will update the special appropriation funding cap administered by the ARC to include policy approvals and indexation adjustments. The bill will also extend the forward estimates through to June 2024 for existing schemes within the National Competitive Grants Program, to allow for continued funding of quality research in Australia. Today I want to talk about some of that fantastic research that's going on right in the middle of my electorate and particularly at Flinders University.

I have spent a lot of time at Flinders University, because that's where I attended university and did my law degree and my arts degree. I was very privileged to study under incredible professors like Andrew Parkin, Dean Jaensch and Haydon Manning, who very much formed my views on policy and policymaking, taught me how to be a fantastic researcher and inspired me to be interested in politics, which is, in large part, how I ended up here.

I'm so lucky to be able to spend a lot of time at Flinders, talking to researchers and meeting with their wonderful vice-chancellor, Colin Sterling, who is a dynamic force and has done a wonderful job in his leadership of Flinders. Some of the projects that they currently have going have been made possible by Australian Research Council grants and include an interesting project between the College of Medicine and Public Health, at Flinders University, and Macquarie University. It will be looking at how hover flies and honeybees, with tiny brains and sensory systems, excel at making fast and accurate decisions while flying. It might sound like a quirky project. However, they are going to use the information that they gather from looking at brain recordings, flight analyses and modelling to generate new knowledge on how animals may utilise movements to simplify the way they sample information. The reason that they're doing this is so that they can extrapolate and learn from these very clever animals. They can then apply those learnings to neuroscience to look at how we can enhance the performance of autonomous robotic systems operating in challenging environments, such as disaster relief, mining and remote exploration. That's the kind of cutting-edge, very interesting work that's going on right in my electorate.

These projects also demonstrate the beauty of the ARC system, which brings together researchers from around Australia to work on projects of common interest. At Flinders University, in the College of Science and Engineering, they're researching coatings to control and eradicate unwanted marine biofilms. Biofilms grow on all surfaces and environments. They pose environmental threats and involve costly eradication efforts. This discovery project aims to develop novel electrically conducting carbon based paints that are stable in marine environments and to investigate how marine biofilms respond to these coatings. This could result in a green solution for controlling the biofouling of surfaces immersed in oceans.

South Australia has a fantastic and very strong fishing industry. We are very proud of the fact that we were one of the first jurisdictions in the world—I believe—to protect our marine environment and to implement quotas for things like the southern rock lobster so that wild caught fish were not overfished. We have a very strong sense of commitment to environmental responsibility, to sustainability and to making sure that we can go on to have strong, thriving fishing industries forever. As we have such a strong fishing industry and so many passionate recreational fishers, this project will be of great interest to anyone who spends time in the ocean, whether that's professionally or for leisure.

The Flinders University College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work are undertaking a very important project on the issue of domestic and family violence, which I know is of great interest and importance to everyone in this place. The project looks at how we can better support the workforce that deals with people who have endured enormous trauma. This project will generate evidence based research on the nature of work within the domestic and family violence sector and look at the implications for the domestic and family violence workforce across victim, perpetrator and Aboriginal specialist services. The expected outcomes include workforce development strategies that best respond to the needs of this workforce. I'm sure everyone in this place would like to extend their thanks to everyone who works in the domestic and family violence sector, which supports people at their most vulnerable moments and tries to get them the support, safety and assistance they need to rebuild their lives.

The College of Medicine and Public Health is investigating a novel metabolic pathway in intestinal stem cells. This discovery project recognises that the gut is the most rapidly renewing tissue in the body. It is driven by a highly active stem cell niche that is critically regulated by bile acids. The disruption of bile acid has profoundly adverse effects on intestinal renewal and hence gut health. This project aims to look at how medical professionals and specialists can best assist people to look after their intestinal health.

As I mentioned before, the beauty of the ARC system is that it brings researchers together from around the nation. Flinders is partnering with a range of other universities. The College of Medicine and Public Health is also working with the ANU to look at understanding engagement to regulate the commercial determinants of health. The College of Science and Engineering is working with Adelaide university to look at the impacts of fire and rain on deep-time ecosystem assembly in Australia. The College of Science and Engineering is working with the University of Western Australia on saving seagrass from climate change. As I mentioned, South Australia has a strong and very beautiful stretch of coastline, seagrass and marine environment, and its health is of absolute importance to everybody in SA. The College of Science and Engineering is working on a University of Newcastle discovery project on bacterial polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon transport and degradation. The College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences is working with the University of New South Wales on a project titled 'Antipodean Geology: A Modern History of Southern Hemisphere Earth', and the College of Medicine and Public Health is working with the University of Western Australia on social practices of oral health in Australian preschool children.

We have a new vice-chancellor at the University of Adelaide, Peter Hoj, who I'm looking forward to working with. He has come back to South Australia, which is wonderful. The Waite Research Institute is one of the most unique campuses in the nation and even in the Southern Hemisphere, because it has the largest concentration of agriculture and wine research in the Southern Hemisphere. It's just on the edge of the city—it takes about 10 minutes to get there from the CBD—and it sits on 184 hectares. It is a unique and beautiful site, and we are so lucky to have such an incredible agriculture and wine research precinct. It works with CSIRO and with industry bodies to do research on wine, horticulture, plant biotechnology, cereal breeding and food and agriculture. The very historic site also includes the beautiful Urrbrae House—and I say hello to all of the wonderful friends of Urrbrae House—and the Waite Arboretum. I have a lot of amazing volunteers in my community that interact with the campus.

While the Waite campus of the University of Adelaide is not purely about research, it does have some wonderful Australian Research Council projects currently underway, including the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production. This is a really important project. Obviously we have a lot of climate challenges here in Australia, and we have long been a world leader when it comes to wine production, research, minimising water use, and the best vineyard and winemaking practices. The project will tackle new and age-old challenges to wine production through innovative, multidisciplinary research over the next five years. Through this project, the University of Adelaide, supported by Wine Australia, is bringing together wineries, vignerons, the Australian Wine Research Institute, the Australian Genome Research Facility, Charles Sturt University—again, partnering with another university—CSIRO and lots of other wonderful companies and groups, making this a very important project. The interests and capabilities of these groups extend from grape to glass, so it's about the entire production cycle of wine. They will be looking at industry challenges and, importantly, how to increase industry profitability. I will monitor this wonderful project with interest, as it looks at viticultural management, oneology—wine microbiology and wine chemistry—sensory science and winery process optimisation.

There are also some other wonderful projects going on at and around the Waite. Through the University of Adelaide's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, they are involved in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology. This project is looking at the ability of cells to move and maintain proper shape, which is very important for development, repair and survival in multicellular organisms. The University of Adelaide is also working with the Australia-China Joint Research Centre of Grains for Health, which is looking at the growth of seeds. They expect to provide economic benefits by increasing the yield of agricultural crops during increasingly challenging conditions. These are just a few of the many brilliant and wonderful research projects going on in my part of the world, at both Flinders University and the University of Adelaide, and they are all enabled by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Research Council Act 2001. I'm very pleased to support this bill today so that we can continue to make sure the university sector and our wonderful researchers continue to be supported to do this groundbreaking research, partnering with people around the nation and around the world.

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