Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Age is no determinant for the value of people's commercial ideas. Indeed, there are so many young people across Australia who have the most extraordinary ideas. If only they could get them to market. But, the younger a person is, the more they typically lack three things: a business network, business experience and capital to get a good idea off the ground. That is why eight years ago I started a not-for-profit called Generation Innovation, which aims to unleash the innovation of young people.

We run the annual GI Challenge on the Sunshine Coast. The GI Challenge is coming to its final stage, and we have three finalists, three entrepreneurs, in this year's mix: Josie Pacey, whose business is Keola Surfwax, a natural, female centred surf wax; Bailey Page, with Zip Zap Chargers, magnetic, cordless portable phone chargers; and Eliza Blumke, with SpeechPal, an app to assist people with speech and communication difficulties. There can be only one winner, and we'll find out on 12 October who will be the 2022 GI Challenge champion and take out the prize, valued at $10,000. But they are all winners. They're all entrepreneurs. Congratulations.