Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House how rural and regional Australia is successfully transitioning to the new economy?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for her question. Ours is a government directing every effort to ensure we continue our successful transition from the mining-led investment boom to broader-based growth driven by services, exports, innovation and technology—the new economy which offers our children and grandchildren the greatest opportunities imaginable and that ensures in these, the most exciting times for Australians, that we are able to seize those great opportunities.

Some of Australia's greatest exports—agriculture, international education and tourism—are spearheading this transition, and they have helped to add more than 300,000 new jobs to our economy over the past year. We have seen through the year strong economic growth of three per cent. Yesterday's national accounts show how well we are transitioning, how well we are progressing and how much better we are doing than other comparable economies. But we have to use carefully every lever of government, every instrument of policy, to ensure that we make this successful transition.

Our initiatives include the $1.1 billion innovation agenda. This is working to generate more and better paid jobs. It is serving to encourage investment, to inspire people to have a go and take risks, and to inspire entrepreneurship. It is encouraging scientists and technologists to cooperate better with business and industry. Of course, integrally connected to this is the defence white paper, which will also spur jobs growth and investment right across the country and especially in regional Australia. Local jobs will be generated through a range of projects—from the RAAF base in Amberley in Queensland, to work on the Puckapunyal military area in Victoria and upgrades to the Cultana training area and Woomera range complex in South Australia. Our defence estate will be upgraded right around the country. We will see defence industry contractors getting more work and more opportunities for innovation.

The innovation is not just about lab research or technology start-ups. Examples abound of leading-edge technology revolutionising food and fibre production by farm businesses small and large across Australia. When visiting Bundaberg, Queensland, recently we witnessed Craig Van Rooyen, a lychee, avocado and macadamia grower, using drones that looked as though they had stepped out of a science fiction movie to chase away bats and birds and reduce the losses on his crops from 30 per cent to five per cent. That is real innovation. (Time expired)