Thanks, Aunty Violet. That was a typically beautiful welcome to country. 

I think about the history of Australian engineering and First Nations engineering, and being a New South Wales kid, I think about the Brewarrina fish traps and the remarkable structure that that is. 

Thank you to Romilly and Engineers Australia for the opportunity to join you.

And I want to acknowledge all of the organisations that were just acknowledged: the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering, Consult Australia, the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, and Science and Technology Australia. 

Tony Haymet, our Chief Scientist, is here. Enrico Palermo, it’s very good to see you here, too. I was wish Enrico last week announcing that NASA has cleared for launch Australia’s first moon rover. I’m still getting used to the Roo-ver thing – I should just hop into it, I suppose. 

But what a thing to have – Australian engineering, Australian robotics on the surface of the moon by 2030. That is a real achievement for Australian engineers.

My good friend Andrew Charlton, Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy; Senator Bridget McKenzie, it’s good to see you here; and Garth Hamilton can’t be here, but he’s been a big supporter. 

The one MP I want to call out is the one who’s actually an engineer - Zaneta Mascarenhas. I’m not sure I’m missing any real engineers among the parliamentary cohort. It’s terrific to have someone who’s currently an engineer also an MP from the great state of Western Australia. 

Every time I drive here early in the morning, this building makes you, firstly proud, and secondly, really clearly aware of our responsibility to the country. 

You look at the majesty of this extraordinary building and think about the Australian engineering that went into it. 

From the crack-resistant concrete structure to the waterproofing membrane, the remarkable 75-metre-high flagpole, and the bridges that bring all of the workers, all of the journalists, all of the MPs and Senators, all of the Australians, all of the busloads of schoolkids into the beating heart of Australian democracy. This building itself is a tribute to Australian engineering. 

The Canberra Division of Engineers Australia nominated this building, along with Old Parliament House – also beautiful but maybe not quite as impressive – for an Engineering Heritage Recognition Program Award. 

The authors of that nomination said, Parliament House embodied ‘the highest qualities of the [engineering] profession at the time’. I think that is true. 

The expertise and the capabilities, the enthusiasm, the skills of Australian engineers are absolutely fundamental to solving every big national challenge that we have in front of us. 

All of them, all of the big national challenges engage the science and the skills of Australian engineering, at the intersection of science, research, technology and industry. 

I would just say, after the sad and sordid events Sunday, it’s important to point out that more than half of our engineers are born overseas. Many of them trained overseas. 

I think of the Chittagong University of engineering and technology’s event that they hold for alumni in Sydney. There are 300 or 400 Bangladeshi Australian engineers with their families at that event. It’s an enormous celebration of that group and the contribution that they make. 

That is spread right across engineers who come from all over the world, particularly the subcontinent, to Australia. 

It’s such a versatile discipline. And we need to engage all of us, our great multicultural community of engineers. 

Girls and boys at school, who are studying engineering now and the great national endeavours that we have in front of us – whether it’s the Future Made in Australia objectives of building our industrial capability to make sure that Australian minerals are processed here on shore for our partners all around the world and turned into metals products proudly made in Australia. 

Whether it’s the great energy and water challenges that Australia must face. 

Whether it’s our AUKUS submarine program and our broader defence challenges. 

I want it to be not just an economic proposition – it’s really important that these are good jobs and good careers – but I want the proposition for girls and boys at school to be a nation-building proposition. Something that they can be proud of, and that their parents have confidence that these are good jobs that can help make Australia a better, safer, more prosperous and productive place. 

That’s why department and this government are so engaged on the STEM for girls agenda. It’s so important that we keep the focus on all of those issues. 

know that one of our attendees, Kylie Walker, is nominated for the STEM Inclusion prize at the Eureka Awards for Science on Wednesday – and I wish you the best of luck. I think it’s going to be a quite a night. I look forward to the outcome. 

Really, this is an opportunity for us to say, across the parliament, across the parties, from the government all the way through, that we value your work; that we’re looking for ways to support and to build on your work; and to make sure that we’re backing Australia’s engineers. 

I couldn’t be happier to be here to be a small part of this event.