Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be nice if I got an extra couple of minutes—I would certainly love to debate that subject with Senator Smith, being part Western Australian and part Tasmanian myself. From my understanding, my grandfathers and great grandfathers all went and fought for this country—we were all under one roof called Australia. We all shared everything equally. It is very interesting.

I want to talk about something different tonight, which is the creative industries plan for Tasmania. When I ran with Christine Milne as No. 2 on the Senate ticket in 2010, a friend of mine, who was a lecturer at TAFE in digital media, approached me and said, 'Look, I have had this plan for years to build a digital media centre in Launceston.' He not only teaches digital media but is also a well-qualified and internationally recognised documentary filmmaker. He also mentors students. He was lamenting that a lot of talented students going through the TAFE process in the area of digital media were leaving the state, pursuing job opportunities elsewhere. I have taken it a lot more seriously in the last couple of years now that my daughter has turned 14 and my son is 12, because they are already talking about the industries they want to work in and whether they want to stay in Tasmania.

Creative industries are quite fascinating industries. I have spent a couple of years trying to boil down exactly what they are and what they contribute. I noticed with great interest Minister Crean's announcement last week on exactly the same thing. I was very impressed with a lot of the metrics and statistics he was quoting. I also noticed that last week the New South Wales government put out their creative industries plan, which is one of six planks they wanted to use to grow the New South Wales economy. When I think of creative industries and particularly the merger with those industries in digital media—the ability to commercialise not only creative functions but also IT or ICT—it seems like the perfect industry for Tasmania.

I have been digging around under the surface and I have found there is actually a lot of really good businesses already in Tasmania in this area. Certainly there is a very large growing arts community in Tasmania. Even MONA, for example, which has obviously attracted a lot of international attention, is already looking at how they can now leverage that attention into the digital media space and looking at entities where they can encourage innovation and training.

What exactly are creative industries that can be migrated across into digital media? They are a broad conglomeration of industries: advertising; what is called the built environment, which is architecture; design, which includes fashion, industrial and graphic design; visual arts; music; performing arts; publishing; screen, which is television, film, electronic games and interactive entertainment; and radio. What do all these different features of industry have in common? They are all bound by the element of creativity and are skill- and knowledge-intensive industries. Creative skill and talent pervades their product development, and all sectors create wealth and jobs through the generation and exploitation of their intellectual property. The increasing influence of digital technology is also common to all sectors.

I noticed Minister Crean mentioned last week—and I traced the source to QUT in Queensland and it is accurate, though it might have something to do with the GFC—that in London, which used to be one of the biggest financial services capitals of the world, and it certainly was for exchange rates, the creative industries in that conglomeration of sectors that I mentioned are actually now producing more for the economy than the financial services industries are. I notice that New South Wales also had some very interesting statistics in their industry plan. Creative industries currently employ around five per cent of the New South Wales workforce, with a further 2.1 per cent of the workforce employed in creative occupations in other industries. More people work directly in New South Wales creative industries than those employed within agriculture and mining combined. Employment growth in New South Wales creative industries is nearly double that of the rest of the state's workforce, their exports are around $1.5—or roughly three per cent—of total state exports and it is also home to 42 per cent of Australia's design occupations.

The prospect for these industries in my home state of Tasmania is fascinating. In my home state of Tasmania we often lament the fact that we are on an island on the bottom of an island and we have these geographical disadvantages, both with getting our freight across Bass Strait, which is one of the most expensive stretches of water in the world, and the fact that we are isolated in many ways. Technology is the great enabler in bringing us together—and we should be the first to have broadband of one kind or another; whichever one we will get fully rolled out in the next couple of years—and we are now connected. I have worked in teaching online university courses over the years, and it is pretty difficult without broadband. That is an example of the type of education service that is going to be offered on broadband and it fits very well with the idea of a digital hub.

If you search around on digital hubs, there are two really good case studies that I feel Tasmania should be having a very close look at. The first one is called 'The Edge', in Brisbane. It cost about $6 million to set up seven years ago and, like the concept that my friend John Swindell at TAFE pitched to me, it is a youth centre. It is a collaborative space to bring youth together to generate creativity and generate ideas. It is also a little bit more that; it incorporates the local universities' training courses, and they offer a lot of free training courses and workshops to both youth and adult education. Classes include computer programming, computer design, Photoshop and WordPress electronics, video editing, media law et cetera. They have now created commercial applications in the area of design, and they also offer rental space, along with free wi-fi and use of computers, for businesses passing through the state who want to rent space. On top of that, they have a very significant creative function, which is more a focus on creative projects than IT projects. That includes screen and sound recording studios, art construction studios and computer labs.

From speaking to people who have been through this centre, it seems to have been very successful. However, it is a different model to the digital media centre that I found at Ryerson University in Canada, called the DMZ—Digital Media Zone. It is an incubator for commercial projects. It also takes university students, it brings in commercial partners and it actually involves the university students in the commercialisation of these tech products. It currently employs about 42 people, and it is generating immediate employment in companies—because it has got a large number of commercial sponsors now—for the university students.

All it is is a collaborative space. There are lots of computers there and there is broadband, and what drives it is the energy of the students and the energy of the young people that come into this space. My children do not watch television at all. At 12 and 14, they will not go anywhere the idiot box. They are only interested in looking at digital media content on computers—looking at YouTube; looking at homemade creations. You can do these things from home now.

The future over the next 20 years is going to be in content. The CSIRO identified this in their big megatrends for the next 20 years. Four out of 10 of their megatrends involved things such as experiential services, with consumer preferences being targeted for experiential services as opposed to physical products et cetera. We have identified a lot of areas in Tasmania where we could leverage experiential services through digital media. We have also identified business partners, people who are interested in a project such as this, in my home state. It is absolutely perfect for the future of Tasmania. We have a lot of youth who leave the state. We have a lot of creativity and we have a lot of energy and innovation. If we want to keep it there, we need to help build industries that will keep kids in Tasmania.

We need to help build industries that will keep kids in Tasmania. They do not necessarily want to work on my vineyard or for my wife's business. We find it very hard to find workers for potato farms and even dairy farms. Life on the land is not easy, and kids are looking for other options. This is absolutely perfect for the industries of the future. I would like to see all political parties consider a project such as digital media hub, whether it was in Hobart or Launceston, to help build a new industry. It should not be that expensive. It is just a matter of getting the right people, getting the right space and getting the right energy in place. In terms of what we can build in a space such as digital media, the sky literally is the limit for the next 20 years.