Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Friendly people, Senator Canavan? Absolutely! And you can vote for the Nationals at every election!

Inland geographical location makes for a sensible defence positioning of many valuable technological minds and resources. However, from a current Australian tech perspective, we are not moving fast enough or growing fast enough. If you are a business owner, you will know that dealing with fast growth is one of the most challenging aspects of business success. Without it, you might look offshore, sell off or wind down. We cannot allow intellectual capital to leave our shores.

Speaking of growing pains, a metro based start-up company is desperately needing to expand but cannot physically do so as there is a sparse supply of suitable real estate options in the Sydney CBD. I would hate to see a situation arise in Australia that could have been prevented if the space, rents and overheads were right and affordable. Regional Australia can host and develop these start-up hubs and other research centres, particularly those that are working on agricultural and environmental issues that are fundamental to our economic future.

Professor Moretti of the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, observed that start-ups draw more knowledge-intensive businesses into the area that they have set up shop in, and in turn also draw other talented workers. Further, Professor Moretti observed that, for each tech or start-up job that is created, five additional jobs emerge in other sectors. That will be a real boost for our regional cities if they can attract the initial investment.

The interplay between start-ups and agriculture is now like the over-used adage—disrupt or be disrupted. Australian agriculture needs to work with booming tech start-up productions and facilitate the start-ups and scientific research to benefit farmers and regional centres. I was at Dairy Australia's dinner last night, and the key message all night was that that industry's future growth and productivity is going to come from innovation and from investing significant dollars in research and development. That is exactly what they are doing, and I commend the dairy industry for their significant work in that area.

One other important aspect of the innovation dialogue is the sharing of knowledge and teaching of innovative techniques so they are brought into practice by relevant industries. Here I go to agricultural science and the dearth of graduates we have in that area but also to point out that you do not have to study agricultural science to contribute to that particular industry. We would love to see some ICT graduates applying their knowledge to our space, and I think that is where we are going to get the real addition.

I am very excited to hear the agricultural pitches made in this area. Our national culture needs to encourage start-up development for practical outcomes such as food production and animal care, not just dating apps. So, to all those Tinderellas and Tinderfellas out there, I say: 'Instead of worrying about where your next date is coming from, why don't you start working out how we are going to get our fabulous clean, green product out into the export markets of the world a lot more easily. Help solve some of the significant environmental, social and production challenges for regional Australia in our industry.'

I could go on with some fabulous examples like drones or the use of genetics. The grains industry is using GPS-guided vehicles et cetera. There is some really cool stuff going on in ag that I would encourage Australians to get involved in. The conditions to support tech industries are present in our regions, and we only need one to start the pool. The more attention that is given to ongoing work, new farm machinery, flora and fauna breeding programs and smart logistic solutions the more likely it is that our regional industries can contribute and develop as world-class enterprises.