Page 2507 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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the path of looking at this, and we will run a complementary process. It is interesting that Dr Joe Baker, the ACT Commissioner for the Environment, is the person the Commonwealth has asked to run that project for them. That is a great credit to Dr Baker, and we are certainly going to be able to benefit from that work of the Commonwealth. We will have instant advice, I hope, available to us.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I will take up again the issue of Windjoy, which is one of those Mr Stevenson mentioned. It is the one that has come to my attention because one of my departments is handling it, and I will encourage the department further in its efforts. I believe that they have been attending diligently to what has been a relatively complex matter, and I will see whether we can quickly secure an end result for them.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.17): I too support the matter of public importance put forward by Mr Stevenson, as I am sure everybody in the ACT, and I suspect even in Australia, would. I think, though, that what we have to look at is the end of his proposal, which talks about new business development in Canberra. Before we can get environmentally friendly and energy saving business development, we have to get an environment in which business can develop.
I have been fascinated in my time here at the many instances - I am sure that Mr De Domenico will back me up - where companies have come to us and said, "It is just too hard. It takes too long". I think the Windjoy proposal is a good example. When I first got in touch with Mr Wood about it last year, we believed that we could do it quickly. We believed that it was possible, and I know that the Minister believed that it would be possible to get a really good business idea up and running quickly. It was not as if they wanted to set it up in central Canberra. They were looking at various sites that could not be used for much else. But even with the Minister on side, the Opposition on side, it being a good idea and it fitting into the environmentally friendly, energy saving proposals we all put forward, what happened? Twelve months later they are still not up and running.
Mr Wood: You are not going to be able to criticise me for something being in the wrong place.
MRS CARNELL: No, I am not. I am just making the comment that even a proposal that has everybody's support ends up being slowed down by bureaucratic red tape, as Mr Stevenson rightly said.
About three weeks ago, the Liberal Party put out one of those famous media releases that Mr Connolly talks about, after lots of discussion with the Canberra Inventors Association, who are looking at setting up an innovation centre in Canberra. They are after some support from government, not necessarily direct funding but getting some space at a reasonable price. What have they got? They have had some meetings, certainly; but they have absolutely no commitments. It is something they have been after for quite a long time. If in the ACT we were really keen on doing something about business, getting new people, new inventions, new business opportunities up and running, it would be organisations such as the Canberra Inventors Association that we would be helping.
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