My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Training and Skills and is in relation to the Stawell physics laboratory in my electorate.
Last November this government committed $1.75 million for the Stawell Physics Lab through the Labor government’s $500 million Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund, to be built in Stawell’s existing goldmine.
The lab will be one of just two in the whole of the Southern Hemisphere, as I understand it, and by far the most advanced. The University of Melbourne plans to partner with the Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and the Italian National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics to bring together Southern and Northern hemisphere research agencies to conduct cutting-edge physics research. It is a hugely exciting project that will attract attention from right across the world.
Just last week the minister met with the mayor of the Northern Grampians shire, Murray Emerson, and Professor Elisabetta Barberio, from the University of Melbourne, to discuss the research opportunities at the lab and the positive economic impact it will have on the local community. I was unfortunately unable to join the minister in Stawell as I was with the Minister for Education visiting a number of primary schools in the south-west of the electorate. However, I have been closely following the project, and I look forward to the ongoing development of it.
It is with this in mind that I ask the minister to meet with and provide me with information on how this fantastic project will benefit the local region, including how many jobs will result from the construction of the lab, how many ongoing jobs will be available when the lab is up and running, what sort of training opportunities it will provide and how this will benefit up-and-coming scientists in our education system.
In particular I am wanting to know how this government will be informing all Victorians about this world-ground-breaking project.