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

Last week the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science visited my electorate of Boothby and saw firsthand the groundbreaking innovation that is happening in South Australia across high-growth areas from medical devices and global health care through to renewable energy and battery storage, robotics and systems automation. We met the team at SAGE Automation, founded by Andrew Downs, one of our advanced manufacturers that employs over 300 people nationwide and does world-class work in defence, infrastructure, resources and utilities. We visited the Tonsley Innovation Precinct and met entrepreneurs creating the jobs of the future. Minister Sinodinos spoke to precinct leaders about the coalition's $100 million advanced manufacturing package that will, among other things, see innovation labs established in South Australia and Victoria and will support higher education so that those entrepreneurs have access to a continual flow of highly trained engineers.

I must commend the work that local business Micro-X under managing director Peter Rowland is doing creating and selling the world's first portable x-ray. ZEN Energy and director Richard Turner are outperforming the US based company Tesla in energy storage. Professor Karen Reynolds, based at Flinders University, continues to lead medical device research innovation while nurturing start-ups. South Australia is leading the world in so many of these areas and I am incredibly proud that this innovation and smart manufacturing is based in the heart of my electorate and collocated with Flinders University and TAFE, which truly encourages the flow of ideas and cooperation between the education, innovation and business sectors.