iAwards

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Industry and Skills.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr TEAGUE: Can the minister update the house on the Australian Information Industry Association 2018 iAwards and the success of South Australian innovators, including the work the state government is undertaking to grow innovation across our state?

The SPEAKER: Before I call the Minister for Industry and Skills, I call to order the member for Wright. Minister.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Industry and Skills) (14:20): Thank you, sir; I have never felt so in demand. I thank the member for Heysen for his interest in innovation, the work that the Marshall Liberal government is doing here in South Australia and the nationwide engagement that this government is engaging in.

I was pleased to attend the 2018 national iAwards last week in Melbourne. Congratulations to all award winners, especially the winners who represented our state after winning their categories at the South Australia and Northern Territory awards in Adelaide on 14 June. The AIIA Innovation of the Year, Business Service Markets was Larry, the Digital Analyst, by Complexica; Undergraduate Tertiary Students was Automated Hip Fracture Detection by the University of Adelaide; and Consumer Markets was VX1 3D Volumetric Display by Voxon Phonotics. They were all winners in their categories.

Merit awards to South Australians included the Research and Development Project of the Year, won by Narrative Visualisation Project by Data to Decisions CRC; Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning Innovation of the Year won by Larry, the Digital Analyst by Complexica; and Infrastructure and Platforms Innovation of the Year won by Self Serve 360° Virtual Tour Creation Platform by Augment Space.

For the past 25 years, the Australian Information Industry Association has been driving innovation throughout the nation through the iAwards program. It was terrific to be there to celebrate the 25^th anniversary. The awards are held annually and are Australia's longest running and most widely scoped innovation recognition program. They have promoted excellence in the Australian digital ecosystem from the likes of Google Maps, Atlassian, Wotif and WiseTech Global.

The Marshall Liberal government is supporting our innovators here in South Australia. We are making South Australia the leader of innovation and the start-up capital of the nation. We are building Australia's largest innovation incubator and start-up hub at the heritage buildings at Lot Fourteen, which of course we know is the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site. This includes the University of Adelaide's Australian Institute for Machine Learning—the country's first institute of its kind. We anticipate that by this time next year there will be around 2,000 people working on the innovation hub on the site.

Last week, I hosted a digital roundtable forum to discuss the future workforce needs of our digital and innovative industries, including space, health care, defence, mining, agriculture and cybersecurity. This was attended by about 30 of South Australia's leaders in the field. ICT skill requirements in these growing sectors are significant. The supply is about here, and up here is where the demand is. The Marshall Liberal government is supporting the information industry through our $203 million investment and skills training to increase the number of apprentices and trainees by more than 20,000 over the next four years.

This government is also creating a digital apprenticeship pathway in line with industry requirements—so another pathway into the digital space to create more jobs and more opportunities in South Australia. We will be promoting these pathways in our schools to ensure the current skills shortage can be addressed.