Speech to the Digital Health CRC November Showcase

Well, thank you very much, Dr [Clare] Morgan, for that introduction.

It is a little disconcerting, isn't it?

And quite distracting, really.

The most distracting thing about that is that it is already, friends, the fifth of November.

There is so much more to do.

I, of course, want to acknowledge the Traditional Owners as well and join Clare in that acknowledgement.

I want to acknowledge Kate Munnings, Chair of the Digital Health CRC, and Annette Schmiede, the CEO.

What age are we living in in this moment, for this CRC, but also for Australia?

I was thinking about this speech on the plane earlier this morning, and it occurred to me as I was reading through the notes, which I quite frequently ignore, that what we're really saying today is that this incredible project has run its course and we are celebrating your achievements.

And what that really means for the people who have been engaged in all of this work, from the very early grant application work, which probably happened in the early teens of this century, through to today.

And there are, I know, people who are going into commercial spin-off work.

There are, like out of every good CRC project, more lines of inquiry and more lines of work, and trying to work out where all that goes is a big effort.

There's at least one who's retiring, and that is a thing to celebrate too – a lifetime of achievement in such an important area of the research for Australia.

And, as Clare said, this is what the CRC program, initially funded by the Hawke Government the first time around, is designed to achieve for Australia.

We are not short of innovators, digital health researchers, health data, extraordinary data in Australia – a national asset – or expertise in all of the life science technologies.

But not enough of that capability and that expertise ends up being commercialised here in Australia.

We want to commercialise here in Australia.

Of course, the commercial outcomes are really good, and really important in creating new good jobs.

But also, Australia having that sovereign health capability is just so important for our resilience and for who we are as Australians.

And I just think it's worth taking the time tonight to celebrate that moment and your contribution to the important national endeavour in aged care.

That includes the CRC working with RMIT University and Telstra Health to build a tool that uses routinely collected health information safely and securely to identify deterioration risks among aged care residents.

In cancer care, working with the University of Wollongong and Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District to develop artificial intelligence that can help clinicians better understand the factors influencing lung cancer outcomes.

These projects demonstrate the work that this CRC has been engaged in, through those projects, and the impact that that will have on the lives of Australians – and, if we commercialise these technologies properly, the lives of people right around the world.

And digital health technology, of course, often relies upon, for Australians, our most personal and sensitive data, and that does bring real responsibility for the Government and for you and for the sector in how these technologies are developed and deployed.

We need Australians to have confidence that their information is secure and that the technologies are safe, reliable and used responsibly.

And we, as a country, of course, need to have confidence that that data sovereignty will continue to be maintained, and we are the custodians of that as a national asset.

That's one of the things that makes the work of this CRC so important.

Building trust in digital health for patients, for families, for health professionals and Australians more broadly.

Building that trust, we are finding not just in digital health, but in technology more broadly, building trust is not a barrier to innovation.

This is the lesson that I think is being learnt hard in some other jurisdictions.

Building that trust is not a barrier to innovation.

It's fundamental to adopting innovation and putting it to work, and putting Australian research to work is what this broad CRC program has been about since 1990.

That is more than decades of these programs, starting and ending.

Thousands and thousands of high-quality Australian researchers and research leaders involved in this program.

I think Clare said $100 million dollars in industry contribution.

$55 million dollars from the Commonwealth Government.

That is a serious investment, and a complementary investment that really drives real value for Australia.

It has strengthened our digital health industry.

It's given local SMEs access to the partnerships, the evidence, the real-world environment and the collaboration that they need to develop and validate new technologies here in Australia.

It's created good jobs.

It's attracted investment.

It's built our digital health capability.

Its legacy will go on long beyond 2026, and I know it will live on through Future Health Australia, but it's also going to live on through the hundreds and hundreds of researchers you have engaged with, programs all around the country and the companies that will thrive.

I thank you very much on behalf of the Government for all that you have done.

Thank you.