STEM Education

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:12): I rise to speak about the new exciting learning facilities—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee, be quiet.

Ms LUETHEN: —which I have recently had the opportunity to open at a number of schools across the King electorate. These facilities are so important to our young generation's future because the nature of work is going to change. For example, Lot Fourteen in Adelaide has been transformed into the innovation capital of our nation, excitingly hosting the Australian Space Agency, and this week we heard we will triple the size of Australia's space economy by 2030.

Furthermore, the Marshall Liberal government is committed to growing our state's defence and space sectors. We recognise that these sectors provide enormous opportunities for future generations of South Australians, particularly through the naval shipbuilding program and supply chain. Defence SA will continue to engage with naval shipbuilding partners to maximise opportunities for South Australians. This work will complement the government's Skilling South Australia initiative, which will ensure that South Australians have the required skills to be employed on the shipbuilding programs.

In the space sector, the government will collaborate with private companies and research institutions to grow jobs in the space sector and support students in pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics pathways. How exciting is our future for South Australia? It is great to see our schools are preparing our students well for these future career opportunities.

I have had the absolute pleasure of visiting a number of local schools and officially opening their new, purpose-built STEM facilities. STEM is increasingly important. We know that 75 per cent of the fastest growing industries will need some form of skills associated with STEM learning. King students and parents should be excited because South Australia is a fantastic place to live and it will grow and provide many awesome opportunities for jobs in the future.

I recently visited the One Tree Hill Primary School's new STEM facility. This school is nestled in a beautiful, serene and natural setting, and the STEM building includes a maker base, testing area, breakout space, green wall and display areas for students to investigate, think and create while using up-to-date technology. The students were incredibly engaged, and they were having fun learning too.

These STEM spaces provide our fantastic teachers with the specialist facilities they need to inspire innovation and creativity in STEM studies. A special mention must go to the One Tree Hill Primary School principal, Ms Keogh, for her tireless efforts in planning and managing the project on behalf of the school.

I also represented our Minister for Education at the openings of both the Golden Grove High School and the Salisbury East High School STEM facilities. At Salisbury East, an existing building was given a new lease on life and turned into a brilliant new dedicated facility. The spaces available will inspire students to investigate and create. They have an awesome virtual reality room, they have an educational laptop programmed Lego collection, a collection of drones and a number of 3D printers.

It was great to witness students collaborating on the use of these smart technologies. They are learning lots of skills. Credit must go to school principal Joe Priolo and the entire school community for working around the interruptions to create this space, which has certainly been optimised for learning and engagement. Joe had a conversation with me regarding the important role parents now play in helping the kids to understand where their careers might be in the future and to entice and encourage their students to enrol in the STEM subjects.

Similarly, the brilliant Golden Grove High School's STEM facility was recently opened, and it was fantastic to be able to speak with some very excited students at the opening. This is where my own daughter achieved a great public education. Congratulations to Golden Grove on celebrating its 30^th birthday recently, and to the principal, Peter Kuss, who passionately advocates for the students and our local community.

While technology is ever changing, it is brilliant to have new learning areas and great teachers engaging our students in learning that can prepare and challenge students to be the best they can be in the future. Our government is certainly focused on creating the career opportunities to match their enthusiasm. Pleasingly, there is also an additional $10.3 million invested in disability funding in our latest budget to create 180 new places in special units in classes across our government high schools.

Lastly, this week we announced the welcome news of another state budget with high state funding for education. This includes over $80 million to deliver high-speed internet, and we will see our schools experience internet speeds of up to and beyond a thousand times faster than ever before.