Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to talk about a recent event in Alice Springs at which I had the privilege to represent my honourable colleague Senator Carr. Two weeks after the election, on 6 September, representing Senator Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research—and I am pleased to see he is in the chamber this evening to hear what he missed out on—I was lucky enough to be able to open two new facilities at the Desert Knowledge Australia precinct in Alice Springs. The precinct, under its chief executive officer, Mr John Huigen, is developing into a major research and knowledge centre in the heart of Australia. It is a project which has always had my support, so I was very pleased to attend the opening of a new CSIRO office and laboratory building and also the new Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation.

I will go first to the CSIRO opening. CSIRO is one of the organisations helping to forge the Desert Knowledge movement, focusing research on useful outcomes with commercial potential for those living in the arid zone. This commenced with researching pastoral production in arid areas and has now evolved to include an understanding of the interwoven social, economic and environmental factors of the outback in order to provide a sustainable lifestyle for those living in the region. Projects based at this site focus on natural resource management, sustainable desert industries and regional development. The impacts of climate change, biodiversity decline, agricultural sustainability and understanding how people interact with this environment are just some of the complex issues scientists at Alice Springs will be addressing. While CSIRO is a national organisation, research outcomes so often rely on local knowledge. It is that local knowledge that staff in this new building in Alice Springs will help to provide. Partners with CSIRO in its research here are Meat and Livestock Australia, the South Australian Research and Development Institute and, of course, the new CRC for Remote Economic Participation.

The federal government has contributed $2.9 million to the cost of this new CSIRO building, which will include houses for up to 20 staff with office and laboratory facilities. It also has the capacity for expansion as new research programs develop. I acknowledge the presence at the opening of that new building of Dr Ashley Sparrow, the CSIRO’s officer in charge at Alice Springs and Dr Andrew Johnson, the CSIRO’s Group Executive, Environment. There were also many supporters of CSIRO research and CSIRO staff themselves present on that day.

Once the new building was opened, I had the privilege of having a walk through and making an inspection of the new offices and laboratories. I met with some terrific scientists and staff there, including Mr Gary Bastin, who is a rangeland ecologist with experience in rangeland monitoring using remote sensing and field-based methods. I also met Mrs Vanessa Chewings, Ms Marita Thomson, Dr Margaret Friedel, Dr Fiona Walsh, Dr Jocelyn Davies and Dr Michael LaFlamme. I also mention Ms Josie Douglas, an Indigenous woman with whom I had time to spend chatting about the research work she is doing. She is an Indigenous research fellow who is particularly interested in social and cultural aspects of regional and remote education, community based micro-enterprises and natural and cultural resource management. She is undertaking her PhD, and I take this opportunity to wish her all the best in that work. It will be a terrific outcome for an Indigenous woman such as her, with the knowledge that she has, to have a PhD in this area.

As was pointed out during the opening by the Northern Territory’s Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, the CSIRO has had a presence in Alice Springs since the early 1950s. We know that there is a lot to innovation and laboratory R? however, investment in science and technology is critical to the growth of knowledge-based economies and an important indicator of innovation capacity and performance. The new CSIRO building enables the CSIRO to move into co-location with significant research partners such as the CRC for Remote Economic Participation. Research and innovation are the keys to making Australia more productive and competitive, and the organisations based in the Desert Knowledge Precinct are all playing a part in this. I was therefore very pleased to also be able to launch the new CRC for Remote Economic Participation, which is right next door to the new CSIRO facility and part of the Desert Knowledge Precinct.

CRCs offer a framework for bringing people and resources together to examine and research areas of need. This government understands the importance of collaborations, as demonstrated by the wonderful leadership of the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Carr. That is why we had the CRC program reviewed and made reforms, including research in the areas of humanities and social science in their own right for the first time. The CRC for Remote Economic Participation is one organisation that has benefited from these changes, and is a great example of the value added to the program by the reforms. There are 42 CRCs across Australia, each focusing on particular challenges by bringing together people, resources and end users.

The people of Central Australia live in a pretty unique arid area. For centuries it was peopled only by our First Australians, who developed their own skills and knowledge which enabled them to live successfully, if perhaps basically, in the arid lands. Through this work we acknowledge their ability to live in these arid lands and applaud the skills they had and used. These skills are still useful today, so the Indigenous people of the region have a part to play in modern research, and that is very evident in the CRC for Remote Economic Participation. It is Indigenous people who have the knowledge about plants and animals, climate and water supplies, where they exist. They have the traditional knowledge that can lead and benefit this new CRC.

The CRC began its operations in July this year, and since then it has commenced research to strengthen the economy of the remote region. The CRC wants to see three main outcomes, and these will guide its work: to strengthen the economy of remote regions, to build remote enterprises to provide jobs and livelihoods for people living in remote regions and to improve education and training pathways for people living in remote regions. The CRC has set out to achieve these outcomes by starting to examine more precise pastoral enterprise management, looking at new business opportunities in Aboriginal art and tourism and developing better ways to enable communities to manage risks over the life cycle of a mining operation.

Along with the new CRC came its new logo, based on a painting called Two Women Learning by local Indigenous artist Kathleen Wallace. As the artist explained at the opening of the CRC, the painting shows how different people know different parts of a story but can share them with one another to make up the whole—a great metaphor for the partnerships being built by this new CRC. I acknowledge the chair of the new CRC on Remote Economic Participation’s governing board, Mr Paul Wand, Mr Tom Calma, who is the Deputy Chair, and the Managing Director, Jan Ferguson. That is a group of people which steered this CRC into its operation, its coming into being and its eventual launch on 6 September. Other board members whom I acknowledge are Ms Glenise Coulthard, Mr Ian Davey, Mr Harold Furber—who is a traditional and acknowledged Indigenous person from Alice Springs—Ms Tanya Hosch, Ms Alison Page, Mr David Ritchie and Mr Tony Tate.

There is no denying that the CRC for Remote Economic Participation is new, but it is up and running. It is an enthusiastic team of researchers, scientists and people who are willing to collaborate and to work closely with the CSIRO and other partners as well as many stakeholders. I take this opportunity to let the country know that in the centre of Australia there is some great work being done, and it is supported by this government. I wish the new CRC all the very best, and I look forward to my ongoing visits and support and my future consultation and the benefits that I know this CRC will bring, not only to remote Indigenous communities but also to the nation as a whole.