Remarks, Opening of Macquarie Telecom Data Centre - Macquarie Park, NSW
25 March 2022
PRIME MINISTER: Can I acknowledge also any veterans, who are with us today and indeed, members of the defence forces who may even be here, and say thank you for that incredible service you do to your country. Peter James, Chairman of Macquarie Telecom and its founders David and Aiden, two brothers, who clearly must have got on when they were younger and still working out alright now. And they've been an incredible partnership. And I've known David for many, many years, probably 20 years now and can I tell you it's a great delight to be here because there have been many businesses that have come and gone. We were just chatting about that on the stairs on the way down. But Macquarie has remained because they know what they do, they do it incredibly well. They seek to do it better than anyone else, and I think they achieve that. And in addition to that, they keep looking forward about how to deal with each of the challenges. So to Aiden and David, thank you so much for your success because we're all beneficiaries of it. To Councillor Jordan Lane, Mayor of the City of Ryde, to Damien and Victor, Victor like me, and Damien, we're tenants here as well, with a few people in between us and Macquarie and how that's managed. And of course, to JA who was here, John Alexander the Member for Bennelong, who has worked so hard and I've been up in this precinct with John on many occasions, there he is, being all very quiet and reclining back there. But John's passion for this whole precinct, from the very day he became elected and over his period that he served in the parliament has never wavered. He's he's always got it, whether we've been with the med-tech firms or the telco firms, or the data firms or all the various different businesses that go right across this dynamic electorate of Bennelong. John has been there as a cheer squad, an enabler, a supporter, a problem-solver, and he's done a tremendous job and I'm sort of pleased I'm here, it won't be too long before we'll have an election, of course, this year due in the middle of May. But to be here with John today in his community with people he's worked with and to say to you John, thank you. Thank you. Can you give John a round of applause.
John will be the first to tell you, we've gone for the Apres. We've gone for the new model, in his usual, self-deprecating way and I know he'll agree, because Simon Kennedy is our Liberal candidate for Bennelong and he joins me here, having been preselected less than 48 hours ago, but knowing Simon before he has come into this role, and he has a great reputation and record as a great champion of government services that meet the needs of citizens but he has an incredible background in the private sector and a real problem solver for his many clients over a long period of time, and now he gets to do it for the people of Australia, but in particular the people of Bennelong if he can be successful, which I believe he will. Can I echo what others have said. And of course, welcoming all the staff at Macquarie and people [inaudible] and the clients and others who will join us here today. Can I recognise that yes, I'm coming to you from the cloud today. Those of you who are watching from other places, a real place, a real place, you'll be pleased to know that all the cyber defences don't involve people wearing suits of armour, outside of the various lines and rows of computers, all done by incredibly savvy technicians and cyber security professionals who I had the great pleasure to meet before coming in here. Quite a number of them from the Shire, which I was pleased to see as well.
Coming out of great universities, whether it's the Macquarie or University of Wollongong. I think that's one of the great virtues of where we are today, and one of the reasons why investments like this are made in Australia. Because of the amazing people that we're training and bringing into our companies and our organisations, that is enabling infrastructure such as this, private infrastructure such as this, to be built for it to be taken to boards for approval and they can go, 'yes, I can see that, we can make that happen, we will turn a dollar, it will pay for itself.' And there is, I think, a great set of confidence. It's great to be here today to open something that, I'm sure my parliamentary colleagues would agree with, that we didn't put a cent into. They paid for it all themselves and I say that as a compliment, but I think the Tudehope brothers will be first to say that it didn't happen without a government context. And what we sought to do as a Government is provide the environment for the success of our data and digital businesses. The same is a true statement in the New South Wales Government, providing the environment where companies will confidently invest in building this infrastructure, several hundred million dollars, of investing their hard earned and putting it all on the line. And they can do that in the context of a federal government and the state government here in New South Wales, where they can get on and they can do the business. It's Australian-owned, it's made right here. And can I tell you, particularly in a more troubled world, especially from a data security point of view, where supply chains are frankly more about trust now than they even are about efficiency or cost. And we see that in the most terrible events unfolding, whether it's in Ukraine, or the stresses that have been placed on our own country here in the Indo-Pacific when it comes to your data security. You've got to be dealing with someone you trust. And so words like sovereign really means something. Secure really means something. And for, whether it's a government client – such in our case, or the New South Wales Government's case, or it is a financial institution, or any company that needs to ensure that its data security, they can assure their clients and those who they work with. I mean, you're all part of a trusted chain here. You've all made a promise to a customer somewhere in this business that you will be looking after their data. You will be looking after their business and their services that they depend on from you. And you make a promise, and when you come here and you invest here, and you put your equipment here as we have done, then you know you can keep that promise. This is what this business is all about.
Australia is one of the most trusted and certified in the areas David alluded to, when it comes to the data industry. A highly qualified team of trained engineers here, up to 40, up to 50 megawatts of data storage capability. And this is all helping us as a country to help achieve our goal of being a top 10 digital economy by 2030. We have a five-point plan to grow our economy, and this is one of those points in that plan. The fourth point in that plan is about ensuring that we are enabling the investment, certainly the technology, the infrastructure and also the skills that drive all of that as well. These all come together because during the pandemic, I think we learnt pretty quick that how much we were relying on centres just like this and to have the capability and the capacity of that area quickly moved, I think, businesses and consumers and others forward about five to eight years in space of about two months. And so there's a much deeper understanding about what is required of facilities like this and the regulatory environment in which they operate.
And so whether it's our regulatory systems or investments we make ourselves, we need to be constantly confident about being able to address the cyber challenges we face. Espionage, disinformation, cyber-attacks, foreign interference, economic coercion. There is a lot of malignant activity out there that we need to address together, and this is all increasing and the incidents are increasing and to see the reports downstairs of what was being coming through in real time didn't surprise me at all. And so we need to continue to lift our game. Just earlier this week the Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, announced the opening of a new AFP led centre in cyber-crime. Those investments have meant we've been able to identify more threats, destruct more foreign cyber criminals and they're not just state based criminals by the way, they're often criminal based actors, we've dealt with these issues and I'm sure it’s been same in New South Wales, they’re often criminal based actors, they're opportunistic actors, they're mischievous actors. There's a whole range of threats that can come our way. And so these activities that we're engaged in only adds to that, it only adds to that. It's estimated that increased digitalisation could add some $315 billion to our economy and create 250,000 new jobs in the near future. And that future is already a reality right here with what we're opening today. And so it's why our digital economy strategy, we're looking to have an ecosystem that lists the literacy skills in digital issues in the workforce, it grows the R&D investment in areas like AI and quantum. And on that, I note that the recent AUKUS arrangement agreement, that we were able to secure with the United States and the United Kingdom, something that no one thought would be possible, particularly, everyone's aware of the pointy end of this being around nuclear propelled submarines. But actually, AUKUS was about more than that and AI and quantum are actually specifically as part of that arrangement. And all three of us wanted it in there because we knew how important that would be to Australia's future security. But whether it's the engineers, the scientists, the technologists. Ensuring that they're coming through the system, the barriers to innovation, the barriers to the approval process for the facilities like this in the future. We've invested some $2 billion already in our digital economy strategy, and it's really, really pleasing to come here today and see that strategy being reality, very much before our own eyes. So to David and Aiden and everyone who has played a part in bringing IC3E to life, I want to thank you very much. The builders, the architects, the engineers, the tradespeople, the whole team. I think you can be very proud of what you've been able to achieve here and the role that this will play in Australia's economic plan in the future and the prosperity that will come. Thank you for keeping us at the leading edge at the front of the pack. Thank you very much.
