Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about cutting-edge research in my home state of Tasmania being conducted by Sense-T.

My colleague Senator Bilyk and I were fortunate enough recently to receive a briefing from Sense-T's acting director Amanda Castray, program manager Clare Rutherford, and communications manager Andrew Rhodes on the groundbreaking work being done.

Sense-T uses sensors and historical, spatial and real-time data to help solve problems and allow people to make better decisions or, as one researcher said, 'make a mathematical smoothie.' It is that so-called mathematical smoothie that can transform our economy by making industry and business more competitive, more efficient and sustainable.

Sense-T is about solving problems like by telling farmers how much their grass will grow, asthmatics when they might need to stay indoors or tourist operators where tourists are going. It is driving innovation, and the work Sense-T is doing further adds to the excellent international reputation that Tasmanian researchers have established.

The Sense-T team provided me with an update on some of the stage 1 projects that have been completed in the agriculture and aquaculture industries and which are already having a big impact on farmers and fishers. Importantly, Amanda was also able to outline plans for 14 projects under stage 2 and how Sense-T's 60 researchers are expanding their work beyond agriculture into areas including health, tourism, transport and financial services.

Sense-T was set up in 2012 with $3.6 million in funding as part of the federal Labor government's Tasmanian jobs plan and through the intergovernmental agreement on forestry. It is a partnership between the University of Tasmania, CSIRO and the Tasmanian government. When it was established, Sense-T focused on the regions most affected by the downturn in the Tasmanian forest industry and its initial projects were centred on agriculture. It is well known that Tasmania produces some of Australia's best beef and dairy products. One of Sense-T's key projects in stage 1 was aimed at boosting productivity and efficiency in the beef and dairy industry. One of the major successes was the development of the Pasture Predictor. This is an online tool that gives farmers a 30-day forecast of pasture growth. This is a huge help to dairy farmers, who can decide how long to keep their cows in milk or when they might have to buy in feed.

The University of Tasmania has also established Sense-Co as the commercial arm of Sense-T, to commercialise the outcomes of Sense-T's research. For example, dairy farmers might want to put sensors on their own properties to give more localised information about their pasture growth and on-farm conditions than those provided at a regional level by Sense-T's free online Pasture Predictor. I am pleased that this government has continued Labor's investment in Sense-T at a time when it is cutting funding to universities.

One of the new areas that especially caught our attention was the AirRater project, which aims to improve the health and quality of life for people with asthma and hay fever in Tasmania. We know how debilitating asthma and hay fever can be and how air quality and weather can make these conditions much worse, resulting in admission to hospital and in some cases death. The AirRater project has two parts. Equipment will be installed around Tasmania to record information on temperature and air pollution including pollen, smoke and some gasses which will be fed into a central database. Tasmanians will be asked to use the free smartphone AirRater app to report their daily symptoms of asthma, allergies and hay fever. Once that information is entered, they will be given a reading of the current levels of potential triggers in their immediate area. Over time, individualised reports will be able to be generated showing each user how the weather or pollen will impact on their symptoms and provide them with alerts when these conditions exist or are forecast. Tasmanians will be able to much better manage their daily activities and improve their quality of life. Temperature and air pollution information can also be used by firefighters and landowners. Sense-T hopes that this app will be ready for use in October this year.

I commend the work of Sense-T and look forward to more of their ground-breaking work which confirms Tasmania as the intelligent island.