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

I am incredibly pleased with our government's enlightened approach to innovation and look forward to contributing to facilitate a variety of policy directions for technology and regional Australia. Contrary to the belief that politicians are using the recent focus on innovation in government to define themselves as a relevant and advanced species, for a long time the Nationals and, indeed, I have been calling for coding in schools and investment in our world-leading quantum computation technology at UNSW, which is absolutely fantastic. I am so excited by the work of Michelle Simmons. If we can commercialise that and stay ahead of the pack, there will be some exciting 21st and 22nd century industries built right here in Australia and, indeed, supporting our tech start-up industries.

I had a great visit out to Fishburners a couple of weeks ago. It is with great pleasure that I will be judging the food tech hackathon—HackFood—on 8 November 2015 at the start-up hub Fishburners, in Sydney. The challenges that will be addressed include, for instance, challenge No. 5, agribusiness. Agribusiness is a $230 billion industry—larger than mining. There has been little innovation in the digital space to solve the considerable problems agribusiness faces. Unpredictable weather, export market changes and distribution and logistical challenges are just some of the issues relying on manual or labour-intensive processes. How can we introduce 21st century reinventions of antiquated solutions within this sector? That is challenge No. 5 for the hackathon. I would like to call on all of those creative and high-tech individuals out there who want to contribute to the economic sustainability of regional Australia going forward: get involved in the hackathon on 8 November. I look forward to judging that.

Google Australia commissioned Pricewaterhouse to write up a start-up economy study, which found that high-growth technology companies constitute four per cent of our GDP and will create 540,000 jobs by 2033. I really want to make the call now that I want to see a proportion of those jobs out in regional Australia. I want to see those high-tech start-up companies dealing with some of the challenges that we face in regional Australia.

The Crossroads 2015 report by StartupAUS, released in April 2015, proposes a number of principles underlying their action plan. They include: creating a national innovation agency, increasing the numbers of entrepreneurs, improving the quantity and quality of entrepreneurship education and increasing the number of people with ICT skills. Even at Fishburners we cannot get enough coders. We are bringing them in on 457 visas as fast as we can type the visa applications. We have to get those skills into our own education system and realise that these guys are earning a lot of money very quickly. Other principles in the report include: improving access to start-up expertise, increasing the availability of early-stage capital to start-ups, addressing the legal and regulatory impediments and increasing collaboration and international connectedness.

I want those principles, as I said before, to be implemented in regional Australia, in the agricultural industry, and to ensure that all of Australia benefits from our new focus. The growing and modernising Asian middle class means that demand for our agricultural product is going to increase exponentially. We need transformative technology, both on-farm and off-farm, and, through logistics and distribution, to ensure that we reap the benefit of that growing middle class. Australia is shoring up its status as the food bowl of Asia and the South Pacific. This will only by improved by entering into ChAFTA and the TPP agreements, as we have spoken about in question time in this place all week. What we want is the provision of high-quality products, grown and nurtured with the best and latest science in mind. Increased innovation will not only improve efficiency but rejuvenate regional industries, strengthen regional communities and attract more people, who will come to know what we all know—that to live and work in the regions is a fantastic thing and that a regional community is an excellent alternative to settle in. Not only is agricultural innovation vital in our regions; knowledge-intensive tech innovation is also vital. The coalition announced that it will team up with start-up incubator BlueChilli to organise a one-day hackathon to generate ideas about how the government can support start-ups and turn Australia's tech sector into an economic powerhouse. I have a few of my own principles that I would like to pitch to the government on the topic of what Australia's innovation should seek to champion.

Firstly, it should invest $25 million—it is a paltry amount—over five years to the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology so that they can get to the quantum computer construction and commercialisation stage as soon as possible. I have been advocating for this project for a long period of time. It is very exciting, and I call on the government for that $25 million. It is a paltry amount given our overall budget.

Reliable high-speed internet to our region is vital if regional Australia is going to be able to participate in and use the technological innovations that we need to increase our productivity. We need to have coding taught in all schools—beginning from primary school, not year 9. I know there are some coding clubs which are exponentially increasing the number of kids who are getting involved and starting coding. There is a huge skills shortage out there.

Tech-pitching policy and management ideas about agricultural issues is something I also want to see addressed; that is, more apps that farmers can use and be consulted in the creation of, as well as start-ups basing themselves in regional areas. We know that if you are sitting together it is like an incubator—you feed off each other. On that last point, the regions can work to attract the physical footprints of start-ups and innovators for the following reasons: it is cheap to live where we live out in the regions. Not only is it beautiful, not only are you healthier, but we have cheap office space and lifestyles that are conducive to creative innovation.