Manufacturing Technology Centre

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:34): My question is the Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Can the minister inform the chamber about how the government is assisting businesses—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! You are being asked a question, minister.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: —in the north to take advantage of new and advanced technologies.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:34): I thank the honourable member for her question and I know she is very interested in these matters. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to formally open the Manufacturing Technology Centre. The Manufacturing Technology Centre is another project that is supporting the north and particularly supporting those in the north who have the potential to create jobs and to create new products and even create new industries.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Members opposite interject. I know they have so little—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister is trying to answer a question.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: We know that we need to work hard to help businesses create jobs in northern Adelaide, as I said earlier, and that means helping businesses innovate and do things differently. For some businesses that means moving into whole new industries and making new types of products for a new market. For other businesses, it means doing things in a smarter way and, in many cases, it involves using technology to improve their product and improve their processes.

The core function of the Manufacturing Technology Centre is to assist businesses to understand advanced technologies and to assist and accelerate the adoption of such technologies and processes into existing businesses. The centre will also connect businesses particularly in the north to researchers and innovators, working hard to match up problems and solutions. At the opening of the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the assembled crowd heard from Mr Peter Charlesworth from the Australian company Minelab.

Minelab is a company that produces metal detectors for finding both valuable materials in the ground and also landmines. Minelab is an example of a company that has benefited greatly from the adaption of advanced technology. Heavily exporting into Africa with about $100 million in exports every year, Minelab has unfortunately been the victim of several different companies producing products that looked identical to their product. They were the victim of IP theft and duplication.

This provided a wake-up call for the company and the company invested significantly in exceptionally advanced technologies to protect their products and intellectual property from being reverse engineered and stolen, but also in advanced technologies that allow customers to be sure they are purchasing a real Minelab device through authentication displays and text messaging verification services. The Manufacturing Technology Centre will assist companies to find advanced manufacturing solutions to problems currently facing the company, such as Minelab was able to do.

The Manufacturing Technology Centre will have six priority focuses: additive manufacturing (often known as 3D printing); advanced materials; photonics; robotics and automation; digital technology; and big data. Through the centre, businesses can understand the possible technologies that could assist their business. A key role of the centre will be working to strengthen connections between job-creating businesses and research institutions. That is one of the reasons that the centre is located in the Mawson Lakes campus of the University of South Australia which, through its Future Industries Institute, is doing exactly that.

Professor Tanya Monro, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation at the University of South Australia, spoke at the opening of the Manufacturing Technology Centre about how the university was working to improve those connections and improve our record of commercialising the great ideas we have in South Australia. I look forward to the Manufacturing Technology Centre contributing to businesses in North Adelaide and keeping this chamber informed of its progress.