Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's no doubt COVID created many challenges for everyone right across the country, but it also created amazing opportunities. As my former CEO said, 'In 10 weeks, we saw an uptake in digital technology that we thought would take 10 years.' Overlaid with this, the amazing progress that we're seeing in AI, quantum and medtech means that there are amazing opportunities for the Australian economy. We all know that we are going through a cost-of-living crisis at the moment, and one of the key things we can do to drive down inflation is to ensure we have productivity gains across the nation.

Recently, the Productivity Commission released their five-year report, and that showed that digital technology is one of the key pillars that is going to drive productivity into the future. It is disappointing that this government has missed that opportunity by not appointing a minister for the digital economy. We saw an amazing 2030 digital strategy implemented by the former minister, Senator Jane Hume, that was making progress. Industry was excited about it and seeing results. You talk to industry today, and it has ground to a halt. It has profound impacts for our economy.

When we look at AI as an example, one of the consequences of not having a minister is the discussion paper that the government has just released. Minister Husic has released a good discussion paper, but it looks at it from a scientific point of view, and the scope of the paper focuses on the risks of AI. It does not talk about the economic opportunities. It's important that we do look at the risks but also at the economic opportunities. That's why we need a minister driving this policy and this strategy every day, because it's the people of Australia who will benefit from the economic growth and the productivity gains of AI.

AI also has a really important role to play in the medtech sector. Medtech is an exciting space. There are over 17,000 jobs directly in medtech in Australia and 34,000 jobs that support and supply the sector. I was talking to industry representatives this week. They talk about how AI will be an important part of their journey. And that's the reality with AI—yes, there are risks that we need to mitigate, but we can't lose sight of the opportunities. It's likely that we will all be saved from cancer or other diseases through the uptake of AI in the medtech sector. So it's important that we get the balance right in this discussion and look at the opportunities. When we talk about medtech we also need to have a discussion about these opportunities and make sure that people have timely, equitable access to technology at the right time to save lives and ensure patients can recover quicker. We need to value the health outcomes that medtech can achieve and ensure there's a sustainable investment and regulatory process to ensure that we can get products into the country to serve all Australians as quickly as possible.

Quantum is an amazing opportunity for our country. From a national security perspective, it's a key part of pillar 2, but it also brings significant economic opportunities for our country. BCG estimates that the market value of quantum by 2040 will be $850 billion, but 90 per cent of the value capture will be early adopters. This is one of the challenges that I spoke about in my first speech: the speed that technology goes, relative to how government moves with policy. We've seen with the quantum fund the government have announced that applications will open early next year, with the first feasibility studies expected mid-next year and the demonstrations to commence in late 2025. That's too late for the industry, and we're going to miss this opportunity.

To understand this opportunity, a great example is a local company here in Canberra called Q-CTRL. They're five years old. They employ a hundred staff. They're focused on defence but also on new industries, and they work with large players like Airbus, IBM and Amazon Web Services, servicing those companies. They are a key business in building the tech ecosystem locally that we need to continue to grow and prosper. They're creating highly skilled jobs. But businesses like Q-CTRL and others in quantum, AI and medical tech need support, and they need the government to move quicker, because every day there are greater developments in this industry. I urge the government to employ a minister for the digital economy. (Time expired)