Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

The government is focused on keeping Australian businesses at the cutting edge and, in particular, globally competitive and ensuring that Australian businesses have the best opportunities to benefit from that connectedness and, of course, the Industry 4.0 practices.

I had the opportunity last week in Perth, with Senator Cormann, to launch test labs for Australia at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, at which we had over 1,100 people attend to talk about Industry 4.0. In terms of the test labs for Australia announcement, this is a $5 million investment on behalf of the Australian government to create five new test labs at universities and training institutes around Australia, but it's very much focused on small and medium enterprises. What it's going to do in relation to small and medium enterprises is enable them to incorporate the latest technologies into their operations and embrace digital innovation, including the Internet of Things, big data, data analytics, robotics, sensors and automation. This is a great initiative. It reinforces the government's commitment to innovation.