Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the care economy and about Professor Rajiv Khosla and his work in the robotics and innovation space. The tireless work of Professor Khosla and other stakeholders is now coming to fruition, after more than a decade of hard work and professionalism and following a commitment to help people within our community.

The work of Professor Khosla started many years ago at La Trobe University, and now he's the CEO of Human Centred Innovations. Professor Khosla's work is cutting edge. He has accomplished things that no-one else has done before. It's something he and the team should be very proud of. More importantly, he is improving the dementia journey for many and bringing joy to people living with a dementia diagnosis. It doesn't matter your age, we all want to experience joy at different times in our lives, and just because you have a dementia or disability diagnosis does not mean you can't experience joy and fulfilment in your day.

During my advocacy over many years for the aged-care sector, and as a senator for Tasmania and former assistant shadow minister for aged care, I've mentioned Matilda and Professor Khosla to countless people. I do admit, though, that Matilda is often difficult describe to people—how exactly she functions and what she brings to someone's day-to-day experiences—without them seeing her in action firsthand. Matilda isn't just a social assistance robot; she is an embodiment of a decade of research and development, an embodiment of the people who created her. I think it's fair to say that Professor Khosla has developed Matilda in his own image. She is intelligent, innovative, caring and compassionate. Therefore I think it would reasonable to say that she is almost a sentient being. She has the qualities of a human being. She responds to what she interprets and perceives in her surroundings, and those interactions with individuals shape her ability to help who is in front of her and who will utilise what she can offer in the future.

Matilda isn't just Professor Khosla and his team's innovation; it's an empowering tool for individuals, families, researchers, business and the sector, and it inspires them all to do better, to strive to make aged care better, to strive to improve dementia-friendly communities. The government believes that every older Australian deserves love and care in their senior years. Our parents and our grandparents deserve to have someone, or Matilda, to sit and engage with, so they can feel wanted, needed and, most importantly, respected. A study found that Matilda can remind people living with dementia about their daily schedules, communicate to them the news of the day and the weather, engage with them through music and bring back those memories that are still deep within them.

We can't just look at Matilda in a binary way. She is multifaceted because she can also provide respite for carers. In the disability sector, she has improved the social and communication skills of children with autism. Matilda is working in the care economy and, by the sounds of it, she is like every aged-care worker across the country: she deserves a pay rise. For those who want to know more about this innovative and evidence based research, the findings have been published in the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction.

I would like to congratulate Professor Khosla and the team at Human Centred Innovations for continuing to evolve and progress Matilda and her work. Already they have advanced so much that she can interact without being online and she can speak 34 languages, which is really innovative when it comes to people on that dementia journey who revert to their first language. It's encouraging and it's inspiring.

I think it also says something about this government, the Albanese government. We are about reforms. We want to improve the aged-care sector. We want Professor Khosla's plan for further innovation to work in unison. We have a strong ambition to provide high-quality and dignified care for older people and people with disabilities. This will not happen overnight, but we have started the process and it will be a journey that we will see through to the end. I encourage people in this chamber and anyone else listening to invest a bit of time. My husband has already said he wants a Matilda as we age at home. I think it's a fantastic tool and I congratulate them for all their work and research.