Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Women in science, technology, engineering and maths punch above their weight. The thing I love about my profession is it's about your technical competence. Imagine a career where people are judged on their intelligence, not their looks or the way they sound. For me, my STEM career was liberating. Despite this, only 27 per cent of the STEM workforce is female. We need to buck the trend, and that starts from childhood. The song shouldn't be 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman?' It should be, 'Do You Want to Build a Robot?'

That's exactly what the Minister for Industry and Science and the member for Tangney saw at Murdoch University. There I met Curtin University's robot team called Can't Control. These students built a wondrous remote-controlled, pneumatically operated robot. This pink robot spins around, has arms and can lift things over its head. Extraordinarily, these were high school students, not university students, that built this. These students have been inspired to study STEM degrees. I'm so proud that Minister Husic announced $51,000 as a part of the maker projects and science community grants.

Thanks to Dr David Berryman and Tim Keely for making this program a success. A special shout-out to Curtin's Can't Control team: Nicole Irons, Anna Pedersen, Samantha Goh, Kieran Jarvis and Harry Cassidy. Good luck at the Southern Cross regional robotics competition in Wollongong, and happy International Women's Day.