Question Time

Cisco Systems

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Science and Information Economy a question about the potential benefits of recent agreements signed with the US computer company Cisco.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: I understand that both Flinders University and, quite separately, both the City of Adelaide and the state government have recently signed agreements with the large US computer firm Cisco, which will bring several exciting new developments in information and communications technology to South Australia. Can the minister please update the chamber about the consequences that will flow from the recent agreements between Flinders University and Cisco Systems, and also the City of Adelaide and the state government and Cisco Systems?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for his most important question, and I am very pleased to advise members that in recent weeks two agreements have been signed locally that involve Cisco Systems, the large American ICT company. The first of these agreements between Flinders University and Cisco Systems includes a $14 million agreement for a significant ICT upgrade, which will install 2,000 wi-fi access points across the campuses. The upgrade also includes the capacity for high definition video conferencing.

The agreement also contains a MOU to facilitate collaboration between the university and Cisco on the Internet of Things. I know the Hon. Ian Hunter will be very interested to learn about the Internet of Things. I am sure our young visitors in the chamber would probably know more about the Internet of Things than the honourable member, but I know that he is very interested to learn, and that is why he is sitting there listening so intently.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Open to new things, unlike the opposition.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Very open to new things, unlike the opposition. Included with this MOU is the establishment of an academy at the university's new Tonsley Park building. The expression the Internet of Things may not be familiar to all in this chamber, but it refers to the emerging trend in which most of the devices and objects around us will soon be or have the potential to be connected to the internet and be capable of interacting with each other.

We are all very much familiar with the internet and the way people are able to talk to other people via the internet. This new wave of development is using the internet for devices to be able to speak to other devices. Increasingly, things like sensors, which register things like changes in temperature, light, pressure, sound, motion, or even the presence or absence of people, will be embedded in the things around us. The data they record and report can then be acted on or used in many thousands of very creative and innovative ways. This new wave of technology is likely to really change the way our everyday lives operate, and is also a vehicle for huge future developments.

For instance, it might mean—and I know many honourable members will be interested in this—that the weight and blood pressure sensors that might be in our shoes might one day be able to speak to our refrigerator, so that when you open the fridge and take out that slice of chocolate cake the fridge will help you to reconsider that decision, given the weight and body mass indicators. Or it could automatically modify the grocery items on next week's grocery list order that is automatically submitted each week via the internet to your local grocer, ensuring the appropriate kilojoule and fat intake.

Or perhaps the Hon. Robert Brokenshire's herd of cows will each have sensors in them to be able to monitor a whole range of things, including their health status, their weight and suchlike, which the honourable member would be able to read from his smart phone here in the chamber and, using his iPhone, he could respond to that information by, for instance, adjusting feed supplements that might be delivered to the cows later on in the afternoon. The possible outcomes are limitless.

The number of things connected to the internet exceeded the number of people in the world in 2008 and, by 2020, will total some 30 billion things. By that year the global industry, spawned by the Internet of Things, is estimated to be worth some $A9.5 trillion. This technology has massive implications for health care, energy efficiency, environmental monitoring, ease of domestic living and much else besides. Cisco Systems is one of the largest global players in this rapidly expanding industry.

Even more recently the state government, the Adelaide City Council and Cisco signed a three-way memorandum of understanding which initiates an Internet of Things innovation hub here in the Adelaide CBD. In the process of becoming the first, we are the first Australian capital city to enter into such an agreement and give such a commitment—the first. As I said, it is quite a ground-breaking area. It was very disturbing that we had the launch of the Internet of Things innovation hub MOU signing, where we invited the media to attend, and unfortunately not one of our local media outlets attended. We had media from Sydney, media from Melbourne, all being teleconferenced in, and they have all run articles interstate but, unfortunately, there was not one local media. That was very disappointing.

This agreement enables the city and state to initiate work, creating a physical space for entrepreneurs and start-ups to collaborate, develop and test applications for new methods of smart communication. The innovation hub will attract the best and brightest minds to develop new ways of living in the connected world. As a test bed for new ideas and a magnet for young entrepreneurs, it sends out the right messages. We welcome—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: I have a point of order. Mr President, given that yet again we have had an eight minute answer, this time to a Dorothy Dixer, I wonder whether you would bring the minister's attention to concluding her answer.

The PRESIDENT: Do you want to complete the answer, minister?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Thank you, Mr President. We welcome a smart future where people and businesses thrive. Interestingly, Cisco said that Adelaide was the ideal city for the Internet of Things hub because of its connectivity through the existing AdelaideFree WiFi (which we launched earlier this year) and investment between Internode, I think, the Adelaide City Council and the state government.