Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I saw this motion, I was not surprised that the member for Gellibrand was a gamer. He falls right into the middle section there.

An honourable member: It's a compliment.

It is a compliment. I thank him for putting this motion on. You only need to look at today's The Australian newspaper article 'Richest 250 2021' where it says:

Meet Laurence Escalante of Virtual Gaming Worlds, the fast car-obsessed new tech billionaire.

He's a young Australian—once a Hungry Jack's burger flipper earning $5.95 an hour in his teenage years, now he's at the helm of Australia's tech unicorn success story and vaults into the business billionaire ranks for the first time. Sadly, despite being Perth based, all revenue is derived outside of Australia, mainly in northern America. This is why this motion is so important. That's only one of many, many stories.

Regularly, even teenagers are making millions of dollars through their knowledge of gaming and through their knowledge of information technology. Even in my area, some time ago through the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, approximately five years ago three businesses in my electorate applied for grants under that scheme and one of those was Port Macquarie David Kinney. He had a passion for gaming. David had an idea, but wasn't sure how to turn his dream into reality, but that all changed when he applied under this scheme and it provided support, including training, mentoring and income for job seekers who wanted to start their own business. He's now a very successful businessman who continues to engage and produce material for those looking in the gaming industry.

In addition—and this is a very recent and wonderful program—I spoke to two young people in my electorate up in Coffs Harbour through the apprentice and scholarship organisation BUSY At Work. One of the businesses participating in the Commonwealth scholarship program is Tech Addicts. The director, Bec Donoghue, tells me that Tech Addicts is a Coffs Harbour business that builds, repairs and creates IT and technology solutions. They opened to serve the gaming community but soon opened a business arm that now provides support to businesses around the area. Bec was approached by Jen Smith, the regional scholarship coordinator of BUSY At Work. She was enthusiastic about being a part of the program.

A 17-year-old Dane who I met is a scholarship recipient from the 2020 program. Last year, he completed his Certificate III in Information, Digital Media and Technology at TAFE, and now he is full-time employed in the area.

Another recipient to receive the scholarship is Evan Mcdonald. Evan received his scholarship to study a Certificate IV in Digital and Interactive Games and has just re-applied to do the diploma. He is doing a paid internship working on social media presence, photography styling and website design with The Woodcraft Gallery in Bellingen.

These are examples of this government's understanding and willingness to help businesses do what they do best, and that is operating and employing young people and getting them to succeed in life. But governments at all levels do need to do more. We have some very intelligent young people out there. We have kids who think of ideas that we could never imagine. As a proud father, I will give one very quick example. My 13-year-old came to me at Christmas time and said, 'Dad, I want to build a computer.' I thought it was a bit of a joke and said, 'You go and get a list of the parts and we'll talk about it.' Well, off he went and got a list of the parts, and he bought them online and built a computer. This is the pool of talent of young people that we have in our communities across Australia that we need to support. We need to work with them and engage them so that we can ensure that Australia is a leading nation, like the Netherlands and Switzerland, and ensure that there is a future for our young people.

See this speech in context