Page 2508 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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I was at their award ceremony just a couple of days ago, and they have quite a number of energy efficient and environmentally friendly inventions that have been developed in the ACT or the region. To give an idea of the level of ingenuity, I will give a run-down on one of them - a building material made of pleated benzine rings. For those who do not understand what that is, it is a six-sided structure which is pleated so that two can be put together in a large sheet. Because of the benzine ring structure, they are very strong. This product is made from recycled material. It can be packed flat, it is very light, and it can form shelters that can be stapled together. This material, invented in the ACT, could provide shelter for the many thousands of people in refugee camps in Africa and other parts of the world. My understanding is that in Africa at the moment refugee families are given a sheet of blue plastic, which really does not do much if it is raining.
Those are the sorts of things that are being invented in Canberra at the moment. When we ask why something is not happening, why we cannot get these sorts of inventions up and running, the answer is that there is too much red tape. There is no money; there is no support; there is no nothing. The ACT Government is not even willing to get behind the Inventors Association and give them some space in one of the schools that have closed or one of the other ACT Government facilities that currently have nobody in them.
Another invention to come out of the region is the Hitchmaster, an invention that won the BHP Steel 1991 Invention of the Year award. I think the gentleman who invented this came from Wagga, in our region.
Mr Lamont: He passed through Canberra once.
MRS CARNELL: He is part of the Inventors Association here. Another invention is a much safer type of power point, which has to be turned slightly when you push in the plug to engage the power. A million units have been ordered from the US. Where is it being produced? In Taiwan. Why? Because there simply was not any support in Australia. This is an invention that is coming out of our region. I think it is a tragedy, and I am sure that we would all agree.
Through my office and the offices of other people in the Opposition, we have had some people wanting to set up a particular type of tannery providing very fine leather. What happened? They gave up because it was all too difficult.
Mr Lamont: Because of the environmental issues.
MRS CARNELL: They wanted to set it up out at the tannery. That is where it happens already.
Mr Lamont: Do you know where it is?
MRS CARNELL: Wollongong. They have gone to Wollongong, where they have set up and are providing jobs. If we are going to create those thousand jobs the Chief Minister spoke about last week, when she suggested that the only way we would get the Territory's economy up and running was if business created a thousand extra jobs per year - - -
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