Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to second the member for Ryan's motion on all points. It is an international fallacy that Australians are spread evenly throughout the country's outback. More and more Australians are gravitating towards our metropolitan areas for work, retirement and lifestyle reasons. This has provided both an impetus and a justification for Prime Minister Turnbull to create a Minister for Cities and the Built Environment. As the world around us continually evolves, we must persistently place the goal of bettering our cities at the forefront of what we do as a government.

Cities have been neglected by continuous Labor councils, and I want to acknowledge the hard work of Mayor Quirk and the LNP Brisbane City Council in advancing the interests of Brisbane and making it both a world-class city and a city of the 21st century. It is important, more now than ever, that governments do everything they can to fund infrastructure, technology and planning in our cities.

Of course, it is also important to acknowledge the contribution of Australia's rural and regional areas for their production of minerals, fruit and vegetables as well as animal products that have helped fuel this country's economy for more than a century. But it is also integral to acknowledge that, without a symbiotic relationship with our cities, our rural counterparts may not have been world-leading in so many industries. Cities lay claim to the high-tech tractors, the fertilisers, the efficient irrigation systems and even drones which help to contribute to Australia's clean and green image abroad. It is really hard to imagine how some of the most advanced farms in this country could ever operate without simple inventions such as wi-fi, which again was invented in a city. It is because of this symbiotic relationship, a testament to the strength of our cities, that Australia remains an economic powerhouse in comparison to the size of its population.

Cities are, similarly, at the coalface of curing disease and the provisioning of health services, issues that are becoming increasingly important as Australia's population ages. One example of this is the work being done by the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in my electorate of Brisbane. The institute not only researches causes and treatments for many cancers but is also investigating parasite genetics and developing new identification and treatment methods for many infectious diseases.

Similarly, cities are the drivers of innovation and lead the charge as are universities, like QUT in my electorate, which is a first-class innovator. Recently the new growth centre at the university was established by the Australian government, which will ensure Australia's mining equipment, technology and services sector is well placed to provide innovative solutions to the global resources sector. The Mining Equipment, Technology and Services Growth Centre—METS, as it will be known—was launched at the Queensland University of Technology by the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Christopher Pyne.

The resource sector's continual drive to increase efficiency and productivity will continue. Cities also act as a conduit for many cultures and races that contribute to Australia's national identity. This manifests itself in many ways, from the prolific arts scene, as is the case in my electorate, to the eclectic culinary choices the residents of cities enjoy. Indeed, cities are the economic linchpins in our economy. They are not only the biggest drivers of employment, but also produce the largest output of capital.

My electorate of Brisbane has some of the best education rates in the country. This is not by accident, but rather because cities create a hub for both people and ideas. Just last week the coalition government announced that two local businesses, Cloud Manager and Scio Technologies, would receive just under $1 million in funding between them to help accelerate their businesses to the commercialisation phase. Thanks to the government's commitment to the advancement of its cities, we are not only building capital that Australia wants to move to but creating destinations that the world envies.

I also wish to join in welcoming the minister for cities' establishment of a cities task force to focus on the three core principles of reform: better integrated urban planning, innovative funding, and the delivery of infrastructure and environmental sustainability. I echo the sentiments of Minister Briggs's comments made in The Advertiser recently that the fiscal constraints of all governments are also very real, so this government is looking at new ways to fund major projects around the country and to attract greater private sector involvement.

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