PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Well, there has never been a more exciting time tore collaboration between science and industry here at Bio21. You know, Vice Chancellor and John Shine, chairman of CSL, what you are doing here and what all your scientists are doing here is what we need to do more of. What you are doing is building the economy of the 21st Century. This is what it’s all about. It's about science, it's about technology, it's about innovation and one of the key objectives of the Government's National Innovation and Science Agenda is to encourage more collaboration between primary research, universities, research institutes, and industry like CSL in this case.
So I'm really delighted to be here when the university is committing another $34 million to this precinct, where CSL is doubling the number of researchers it has here. As the Dean of Science was pointing out to me on the way through our tour of the labs, what this means is not only is more of that great research by Australian scientists translated into the drugs and the products that CSL is bringing out to the market, to cure disease and prevent disease, but also it means that the students, the university are learning more.
They are actually working and engaging more in a real world experience with CSL. So this, my friends, is our future. This is how we successfully transition from an economy that's been led by massive investment in mining infrastructure, from a mining construction boom. This is the practical demonstration of the next boom, the inexhaustible boom, the ideas boom because the ideas boom is constrained only by our imagination and our commitment. I believe both in Australia are unlimited.
As long as you, the scientists of Australia, as long as you continue to push those frontiers, as long as you keep on your search for new proteins, new drugs, new products, and as long as we have strong Australian companies that are prepared to take that work and commercialise it, we will continue to create jobs and wealth and greater prosperity for us in this, the most exciting time to be an Australian. Thank you very much Vice Chancellor, thank you very much chairman for inviting me here. I’m thrilled to be here and congratulations on the great work you are doing here at Bio 21 in Melbourne.
Thank you.
Ends