April 28, 2023

NSW Treasurer, Planning Minister visit Innovation Campus

Daniel Mookhey and Paul Scully meet with Vice-Chancellor, tour Sustainable Buildings Research Centre

New South Wales Treasurer the Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC and Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, the Hon Paul Scully MP visited the University of Wollongong (UOW) Innovation Campus on Wednesday (26 April), meeting with Vice-Chancellor Professor Patricia M. Davidson and touring the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC).

Mr Mookhey said the Illawarra and the University had key roles to play in reinventing the state’s economy.

“Where goes the Illawarra, so goes New South Wales,” Mr Mookhey said.

“And if you want to see the future of New South Wales, you've got to come to places like the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus. The technologies that will support jobs in the future are being invented here today.

“So it was amazing to see first-hand the potential we have to ensure that we are building a resilient economy.”

UOW was the first university that Mr Mookhey visited after becoming shadow treasurer and he said he was please to close the loop and make it the first university he visited as Treasurer as well.

Mr Moohkey said regional universities like UOW would play a crucial role in the future of the state's economy.

“Every time I come to the University of Wollongong I walk away with ideas about what we could be doing better. I look forward to continuingly doing that with this University, and many of our regional universities who play such a crucial role in the future of our economy.

“We fundamentally are an economy that makes its money by selling intelligence back into the world and so the ability to use our universities as a strategic asset economically is front of my mind, front of Paul [Scully]'s mind, front of the government's mind.”

Minister Scully reaffirmed that theme with respect to his Planning and Public Spaces portfolio, and the role that technologies and innovations developed at UOW, including at the SBRC, would play.

“The technology that's in the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre is very, very interesting in terms of the future of how we do the built environment ... so this is about developing those technologies, in conjunction with TAFE and with the construction sector, that will allow those technologies and innovations to be retrofitted to buildings,” Mr Scully said.

^{Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully with UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Patricia Davidson and Sustainable Buildings Research Centre Director Professor Tim McCarthy.}

“I'm really excited about the prospect of how we use innovations in science and the like developed here and in places like this at the University of Wollongong in informing those decisions on policy into the future.

“There's a shared responsibility to get the built environment right … to make sure that we're putting good quality, high quality buildings into new residential development as well as improving existing ones.”

Professor Davidson said she was pleased to welcome Mr Mookhey and Mr Scully back to UOW and to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities for the Illawarra and South Coast.

"We had a really good opportunity to talk about our shared interests," she said.

"In particular, moving our community on the clean energy transition, how we're addressing some of the complex health and social services challenges that the region is facing and also the important role that the University of plays as an anchor institution in the region."