Australia is a creative and imaginative nation, driving innovation that is vital for our nation’s
future prosperity.
Victoria and Melbourne are at the heart of that, representing a quarter of Australia’s
economy and important hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Our tour showcases some of Australia’s cutting edge research in science and technology with
real world applications, world leading research, education and the very best in health and
medical care.
And inspiring spaces that nurture entrepreneurship and creativity with the potential to unlock
new opportunities, international partnerships and collaboration delivering productive growth
and prosperity for all.
I hope you will enjoy our innovation tour of Victoria.
Many of you will know Peter Mac as both a wonderful hospital but also as a world renowned
institute.
For you as a patient, for your friends and family and carers, it’s a much more uplifting
environment.
The building is also littered with a whole host of outdoor spaces.
The feedback from patients was that they want to be able to peel their curtain back and
speak to someone who is going through the same things that they’re going through as
well.
The technology in this building is really second to none.
It’s all done electronically so really minimising the effort and maximising the efficiency of
the way that we work.
We’ve designed and fitted this out for not just next Friday, but 20-25 years in future.
We think this is the place to change the face of child health – that’s our slogan but
it’s more than that, we actually all believe it.
You’ve come in, this is a magnificent building, we get people from all over the world because
we have the best specialists here.
We bring in well over $100,000,000 per year of competitive grant funding to support our
research.
Genomics describes a new area of medicine which is about looking at the total DNA makeup
of an individual.
So much innovation is happening that it’s almost mind-boggling.
We are at the site of the former Royal Women’s Hospital.
So for 150 years, this was one of the most innovative hospitals in Australia.
Our mission is to launch high-growth ventures into the world.
And as part of that, we help students, alumni and the general public – of all abilities
– start companies and build companies.
Because if Australia is going to enjoy the prosperity into the future that we’ve had
in the past, then we need to transition to a knowledge economy and build global companies
right here from Melbourne.
To date, we’ve had 24 companies come through and they’ve raised over $10,000,000 in capital,
employed over 200 people and have a turnover of $11,000,000 and growing very rapidly.
Inspire 9 is Melbourne’s first community-led co-working space for start-ups, freelances
and creatives.
We started in our current location in 2011 and over the course of the last five years
have helped over 90 businesses and individuals grow their businesses both here and internationally.
It gives us an insight into some of the areas that you normally wouldn’t see.
It’s not necessarily traditional for people to go from high school to university to start
a company, so that’s a problem that I’m trying to solve through JobHack.
Ballarat was built on mining, we’re a gold mining town.
We have quite a rich history – we want to tell that story.
So there are lots of interesting, innovative ways that we are looking to capture stories
and our culture and put them into our planning.
We’re in the region because we can build a relationship with the local community and
we can make a strong case for our enterprise that would support our engagement for a very
profitable and beneficial outcome.
Part of that is developing through innovation and one of those is the check-in kiosks for
Qantas and Jetstar.
The concept, the programming, the design has been done with the team in Ballarat.
Our fundamental model is securing companies against cyber security attacks.
Rather than being in the defensive security, we should go into the offensive security.
We are focusing on the emerging technology of virtual and immersive augmented reality
based in the Ballarat Technology Park.
Virtual reality is specifically applicable in applications such as real estate, construction/engineering,
retail and fashion, marketing, tourism.
We tend to have this feeling that actually nothing happens outside of the capital cities
and it’s quite amazing to find out how wrong we are.
Geelong has a long history of innovation from the hills hoist through to the motor car,
and now through to start-ups and the tech sector.
Our community is going through a massive transformation and we are very very optimistic that Geelong
is going to succeed as a smart 21st Century city.
It’s the Centre for Advanced Design and Engineering Training.
We have a lot of three dimensional and rapid prototyping equipment and technologies.
We have an open access facility.
We welcome researchers, we welcome companies who want to do research.
We’re not only a technology precinct, but we are a growing carbon fibre precinct.
I really enjoyed this trip, especially this technology and development research of Australia
is amazing.
I just saw this morning that also a Japanese university, the University of Nagoya, is doing
cooperation with Deakin University.
So I wish that this kind of cooperation between many countries continues and we’ll get further
results.
The majority of our work is applied research.
We have a series of technologies in the pipeline.
So why Geelong?
Why have we chosen to be here?
We feel we’re really going to be able to stand out and attract talent.
We’ve also got a pool of talent here coming out of Deakin University.
The main reason why we’re down here is the ecosystem and the culture.
Through Upstart, students get an opportunity to work with successful business people to
help bring their concepts to life.
This really is about asking students to come up with their big idea to positively change
the world.
This afternoon, we’re here to talk to you about our idea, the medical awareness band
- the wristband that saves lives.
I realise that Australian institutions are preparing the country for the future very
well.
I was very impressed about the efforts of these universities and industry and researchers’
efforts to make something happen.
Let me tell you my impression about this recent visit – this intelligence is something really
amazing and something that Australia must be proud of.