Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not every day you get to a specialist tunnel-training facility, but I had a great reason to visit one recently. As the recipient of $419,000 in the Morrison government's National Careers Institute Partnership Grants program, Holmesglen Institute were keen to show me what this funding will do to help train the next generation of tunnel engineers and workers.

With infrastructure projects sprouting across the nation, the tunnelling industry can't keep up with enough skilled workers. This funding will help those who are thinking about a career in tunnelling to find out what it's all about in replica and virtual environments. I want to thank Andrew, Gary, Ross and Tina from Holmesglen, who showed me around the incredible Victorian Tunnelling Centre. They explained that people need to experience working underground in a realistic way to know if it's the job for them. During the tour, I tried on some stylish 3D virtual glasses which transport you to a replica mine tunnel and then to a replica boring machine, using the exact type of equipment used on the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project.

Holmesglen are helping to build the engineers of the future and these engineers will build our future. This is yet another example of the Morrison government investing in technology, backing in industry, creating more jobs and securing our future.