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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-06-22 Daily Xml
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Australian Information Industries Association Awards

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:26): My question is to the Minster for Science and Information Economy. Can the minister update the chamber on how the Australian Information Industries Association's iAwards is recognising innovators in South Australia?

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) (14:27): I thank the honourable member for his question and for his ongoing interest in this area and particularly the digital economy area in South Australia. Last week, I was very fortunate to attend the 2016 State iAwards at the world-class Adelaide Convention Centre and to present the awards to state winners and merit recipients in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

The AIIA team, including Rob Fitzpatrick, national CEO; Phil Catley, AIIA SA Council Chair; and Byron Riessen, the General Manager of AIIA SA, delivered an exceptional evening, celebrating the achievements of our state's digital sector. The iAwards is Australia's leading awards program for innovation in the digital economy, with entrants competing in five base-award categories across consumer, community service, industrial and primary services, business service and public sector and government, as well as student categories and cross-categories. In South Australia, the AIIA awards also recognise the Premier's iAward for Public Sector Digital Innovation.

The iAwards is an opportunity to acknowledge outstanding achievement in digital innovation, recognising the crucial importance of the information industry to the landscape of our economy here in South Australia. The government has a proud and longstanding association with the AIIA and all the benefits that our partnership has brought to our shared pursuit of economic development through innovation and the promotion of a digital economy that enables companies involved to act as agents of economic growth in South Australia.

We were particularly proud of the Premier's iAward for Public Sector Innovation, which after first being presented in South Australia in 2014 has been replicated in similar awards across other states. It is easy to recognise the huge potential of digital technology for the betterment of our community. You look anywhere in the world and you can see digital innovations are making significant improvements in public health, education, community safety and many more areas. We strongly believe in the transformative potential of innovative digital technology and we will continue to support our innovators, disruptors and cultural creatives in South Australia to deliver strong economic growth and high-tech job opportunities for our state. To make the short list for these awards, all the nominees brought game-changing ideas to the table, but the successful winners and merit recipients went further, creating disruptive innovation that has the potential to impact the full spectrum of our lives.

The 2016 winners and merit recipients across the five categories included, in the consumer category, the University of South Australia for the LiPo indoor positioning system; in the community services category, ETRAIN Interactive and TAFE SA for a 3D training simulator for nursing; in the industrial and primary services sector, Santos for predictive analytics in oil and gas; and in the public sector and government category, SA Health Integration, and the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion for a vacancy maintenance inspections app.

In the student category, the Leafy Sea Dragon National Park virtual world from Linden Park. I had the opportunity of meeting with them and looking through what they were doing. It followed on from some of the work that they had done in one of minister Hunter's areas in designing national park and park areas with Minecraft. I was impressed because judging from my kids, I thought Minecraft was only a game in which you killed zombies, but apparently you can design parks as well.

The senior students winner was VR Gallery. In cross-categories: the University of South Australia with MoOvi, a virtual reality training tool for chronic pain; PhoneLabs was the start-up of the year; Santos, again for their predictive analytics in oil and gas; ETRAIN, again, were winners in this area; and the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion. In the Premier's iAward, Primary Industries and Regions SA won for their AgInsight South Australia innovation.

All the winners and merit recipients across all categories will progress to represent South Australia and compete at the national iAwards which is to be held in Melbourne later this year. I congratulate all the recipients. I congratulate AIIA for the awards and I wish all our South Australian winners the best of luck in the national awards.

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