Press Conference - Perth - Thursday, 17 April 2025
ED HUSIC MP
MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE
PATRICK GORMAN MP
MEMBER FOR PERTH
ZANETA MASCARENHAS MP
MEMBER FOR SWAN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
SCITECH, PERTH WA
THURSDAY, 17 APRIL 2025
PATRICK GORMAN, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH: I'm Patrick Gorman. I'm the Federal Member for Perth. And long before I was the Federal Member for Perth, I was a member of both the CSIRO Double Helix Club and of Scitech. It is incredibly exciting to be here today with Federal Minister Ed Husic, Minister Stephen Dawson here in Western Australia, my federal colleague, Zaneta Mascarenhas who, before she was an MP was an engineer, and John Chappell who's the CEO of Scitech, and with junior scientists Seb, Leo and Ruby. It's been great to be here seeing the joy that Scitech brings throughout the year. Some 300,000 people visit Scitech every year. I remember, as many people do, having memories of Scitech as a child. I remember doing the Scitech sleepovers where you were allowed to sleep the whole night here and have a pizza party. It was incredible. I've got great memories as a parent bringing my children here month after month after month. They're always happy to visit again, and what we know is that this inspires Western Australians and helps build the workforce that we need for the future. So now to talk about a new forever home for Scitech, I'll hand over to Minister Ed Husic.
ED HUSIC, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE: Thanks so much Patrick and thanks everyone for joining us today. Scitech is an absolute WA icon. 80% – you ask science, tech and engineering workers what they think of Scitech, 80% of them say that it has inspired them to take the career step that they have. So Scitech has been massive in the past, and we want it to be strong and massive in the future, which is why we are committing that a re-elected Albanese Government will put forward a $100 million investment, working with the WA Government, to give Scitech a strong future. To be able to inspire the young minds that will then go on to a career in science or engineering or technology and those type of workers have helped build the success of WA. So many people, for example, in the mining resources sector, science, engineering, that have been trained here and then gone on to make bigger contributions. That shows you the role of science and industry in shaping the economy, growing strong jobs and also coming up with the ideas that turn into products that change people's lives for the better. We've seen what Scitech does. We've seen the way it's inspired others. We've heard the sounds it makes in the middle of a media conference. It does great things and we want that to continue. From our point of view, you've got on either side of the country, institutions that opened up roughly at the same time in the late '80s – Questacon on the east coast; Scitech here. They've gone on to be able to help, decade after decade, to be able to not just entertain kids, but give them a sense of what's possible. Having a sense of curiosity to build up a problem-solving skill that's been really important long term in our economy and firms that are trying to hack the problems that they need to be able to solve to do better. And that's where we're at as an economy. So much of what we get as a nation is made by someone else. We want to be a country that makes things instead of being dependent on just one or two nations, we've got to do a lot more on our own. That's going to be a hard job. The Cook Government is committed to a future made in WA, being able to stand up manufacturing in this state, being able to achieve that will require a lot of capital, a lot of money, a lot of technology, but the biggest ingredient is our people. Being able to train them up, put them to work, will be critical, not just for WA but for the nation as well. So investments like these, what we're announcing today, really important for the long-term good of the country.
We have said, and I'll just hand over to my ministerial counterpart in WA, Stephen Dawson, who I enormously enjoyed working with over the course of this term, because we recognise the huge potential for WA to make a contribution on the national stage when it comes to science and industry. From our point of view, putting this money forward as an investment gives options to the WA Government as it thinks ahead long term about what it wants to be able to do with respect to Scitech and other projects within Perth. But we want to signal that a re-elected Albanese Government wants to work with the Cook Government to make sure Scitech has a tremendous future well into the years ahead. And with that, I might hand over to Stephen.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, just before you go, while you're there. So the $100 million, I'm just reading the press release.
ED HUSIC: Sorry, can I? We are sort of midway through. I'm just going to hand to Stephen.
JOURNALIST: Just so that we can ask Stephen, like, the 100 million dollars, what specifically is that going towards?
ED HUSIC: Can we? I'll answer questions. Let me just get Stephen, we’ll go through this and we'll then be available for questions. Thank you.
STEPHEN DAWSON, MINISTER FOR SCIENCE AND INNOVATION; REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT; PORTS; MEDICAL RESEARCH; KIMBERLEY: Thanks, Ed. Look it’s really exciting to join Ed and the team this morning. This is a significant investment by the Albanese Government into a new future home for Scitech. The state government has been working with Scitech over the past few months to work out where best to house them over the years ahead. So we've been looking at a new facility, whether that's a new building or a repurposed building. So the money today will help fund a new home for Scitech.
As a dad of a 10 year old I, like many other parents in Western Australia, spend a lot of time at Scitech. This is an institution in Western Australia, and it's been around for a very long time. So there are people who, I'm sure, have been here as kids, who now come here as parents and adults. We want to make sure that Scitech has a forever home, and so the announcement today that the Albanese Government will help find a new home to the tune of $100 million really will set us on a great path.
The West Australian Government have been funders of Scitech now for a number of years. We work incredibly closely with the team here, but we've recognised that this facility, albeit much loved, is nearing the end of its life, and so we want to give Scitech a new home. So we're working with Scitech on what that might look like. The planning phase is happening at the moment. Certainly a $100 billion investment by the Albanese Government today will certainly drive us forward in a new direction, and certainly will set our dreams high. So I want to thank Minister Husic and the Albanese Government for this investment.
JOHN CHAPPELL, CEO OF SCITECH: This is a very exciting announcement for Scitech – $100 million to help us to find a new home. We've been here for 35 years, engaging people in science, technology, engineering and maths every day. We believe that science is for everyone, regardless of postcode, regardless of background. We think that science is more than just something that you learn at school. It's a way of life. It's all around us. It's encapsulated in the way we live, how we work, even how we spend our leisure time. So this investment is really important to us. It will enable us to inspire the next generation of scientists and technologists and engineers and entrepreneurs. So thank you very much to Minister Husic and the Albanese Government. Thank you very much to the state government for their ongoing support. We're really looking forward to the future that we build, and it starts today.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, can we just get your name and title for the tape?
JOHN CHAPPELL, CEO OF SCITECH: My name is John Chappell. J, O, H, N, C, H, A, double P, E, Double L. CEO of Scitech.
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much.
ZANETA MASCARENHAS, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR SWAN: My name's Zaneta Mascarenhas. I'm the Federal Member for Swan. I am also a mother, and also I was a child when I first came to Scitech. I grew up in the goldfields, and I remember catching the train from Kalgoorlie on the Prospector and coming to Perth for school camp, and one of the most wondrous experiences we had was coming to this wonderful place. I would say that Scitech, as well as growing up in a mining town, was some of the things that inspired me to study science and engineering. This is a wonderful place but the thing that we have known for quite some time is that while the West Australian economy has evolved, Scitech has outgrown its place, and what we wanted to see is a future for Scitech, because as WA continues to be a powerhouse for the nation, we want to make sure that we're inspiring the next generation of young people. But the additional thing that I would say is that this isn't just about inspiring engineers and scientists. We also want people in all their jobs to think about science-based decision making. What was interesting in the leaders’ debate last night is we saw an Opposition Leader who did not accept the science of climate change. He could not actually say that increased events that we're seeing, cyclones and floods, is because of climate change. Australia is at a time where we need to be decarbonising and be thinking about the future so irrespective of whether you've got a science degree or an engineering degree, what we want is people to respect what scientists say, and what this place does is it helps people understand scientific thinking and the way that we should incorporate that into all aspects of our lives. I can't wait to see what this means for young kids all across Western Australia, but this will also have a tangible impact with the way that decisions get made, whether that's in government or whether that's in corporations. I commend the Federal Minister for making this commitment.
ED HUSIC: Okay folks, now what I was going to propose, if we deal with the Scitech questions first and then any other federal issues after that. And I think you had questions ready,
JOURNALIST: I'm just wondering, so at the moment it's just $100 million pot of money for the state government to decide what it wants to do with it.
ED HUSIC: So what we wanted to signal is we've obviously recognised the important role of Scitech. We think it needs to have a long-term future because of its impact on inspiring people to go into STEM-related jobs that are going to be in high demand in the economy into the long term. We also recognise there are a lot of moving parts in this and a lot of decisions that need to be made. We want the Cook Labor Government to have the flexibility to make those decisions with the full confidence that they've got a federal partner that is committed to investing in Scitech.
JOURNALIST: So how did you come up with $100 million figure then?
ED HUSIC: Well, in the consultations with the Cook Government we have been working out, well what will be the sort of envelope of investment required and the type of contribution that we could make federally, and so that has helped us come up with that figure. The big thing for us is, you have to also recognise, and this is in Scitech's own figures as well, with work that they have commissioned, the social value of Scitech is around $455 million in what it's been able to contribute through the work that it does here, particularly in terms of getting people from WA to think about science, technology and engineering careers, then putting that to work in the economy. So we think it's a really important investment for the strength of WA long term. Don't think of it as bricks and mortar. Think of it as an investment in minds. That's the big thing.
JOURNALIST: So is it like a one-off payment or is it over the forward estimates? Is it in the budget? Like, what does that look like?
ED HUSIC: So we will be making this commitment, establishing a Federation Funding Agreement with the WA Government, and then, as I said, giving them the flexibility to work out where they will head. But again, we wanted to say Scitech – an icon – needs to have a long-term future. We are prepared to be a partner with the Cook Labor Government to make that a reality.
JOURNALIST: Why does Scitech need to move? This is a nice central location. Why move it from here?
ED HUSIC: There are a number of things. One is, we made an investment in one of our first budgets to back in Questacon, and part of that was to upgrade its facilities. Over time, there's so many people coming in, friends, family, etc, you get a bit of wear and tear. So what we wanted to do is make sure that we had the money there to give, as I said, the flexibility for the government, the Cook Labor government, to work out what can be done. There are probably challenges in terms of being able to do that all year. I'm going to leave the longer-term decisions about location, sort of look and feel of what this might be, for the Cook Labor Government to work with Scitech on that. But the big thing is we are flagging, particularly at the federal level, the value of an institution like this.
STEPHEN DAWSON: Just your question about a new facility. So this facility is rented at the moment. It is prime real estate. There are a few years left on the lease that Scitech has. It's always been planned that there would be a redevelopment that would take place here, and it's privately owned, so it could mean there's high rises, or could mean there's accommodation here in the future. So we're getting to the end of the lease, and it's really important that, given the importance of this institution, that we have a forever home for Scitech. So this money today will enable us to continue the planning and get on with getting a new home.
JOURNALIST: Will you buy that building?
STEPHEN DAWSON: We're looking at the potential to possibly build and/or repurpose an existing building, so we haven't landed on exactly where it might be. As I said, the conversations have been taking place over the past few months with Scitech. We’ll work incredibly closely together, but certainly with this money today, it really does give us a new direction to consider.
JOURNALIST: Can you give us any idea, sorry to interrupt it, will it be as central as it is now?
STEPHEN DAWSON: One of the reasons people love this site now, with this facility, is because it is centrally located, so it would need to be in and around the CBD. It will need to have good public transport, and it also needs to have good parking because, as we know, you get school busses here from time to time. So it needs to be centrally located. So that's one of our considerations.
JOURNALIST: Will the state government commit any money to it as well?
STEPHEN DAWSON: Well, we're certainly committed to finding a new home. So I anticipate it will cost a significant amount of money. So we're committed to it. We're going through our budget process at the moment, so I'm not in a position to put a dollar figure on that but it will be a significant investment into the future of STEM in WA.
ED HUSIC: Thank you. Thanks everyone.
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT:
Labor Campaign Media | campaignmedia@cbr.alp.org.au | 02 6120 0805