Page 2510 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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I indicated at the meetings both to the Inventors Association and to the Weston Creek Community Association the process we have put in place to allow for the probable use of Holder High School for a continuing education purpose. We were hopeful that by the beginning of August we would have been informed by the potential user and whether or not they were successful in achieving a fairly significant national contract for that purpose. I am belatedly advised that it will probably be the end of this month before that decision is taken by the Commonwealth Government. That delay is regretted, but I believe that it is appropriate for us to hold off making a decision about community organisation participation in Holder High School until that matter has been determined. It would be of greater long-term benefit to the community and following the wishes of the Weston Creek community for us to secure those premises for that purpose.
The Inventors Association is a robust organisation and, along with other organisations in the ACT, is provided with advice and assistance out of the LEDI program. They do have offices, as I understand it, albeit insufficient to meet their total needs at the moment, provided by LEDI. I think that indicates a degree of support from that government sponsored organisation; but I acknowledge that, to allow them to expand, what they are talking about is an incubator-type facility where potentially successful inventions would be able to be bench tested, engineered and demonstrated.
It just so happens that an announcement was made by the Chief Minister in this year's budget of the expenditure of over $3m for the creation of a park at Symonston, opposite Fyshwick. We are going through a process, the planning variations are on track, and it is expected that work for that facility will physically commence in January 1995. That will provide not only a catalyst and focal point for the advanced technology industries in the ACT that are members of the Canberra region Advanced Technology Manufacturing Association - a body of the New South Wales Chamber of Manufactures - but also an ideal location for an incubator-type facility for the types of services the Inventors Association is looking at. I think it is important that we bear that in mind when we are talking about what the Government is doing to achieve the outcomes outlined in Mr Stevenson's MPI.
Let us go on to the question of some failed applications for assistance or the provision of land in the ACT. I am not too sure whether Mrs Carnell is aware of the procedures that exist within the tanning industry and the difficulties that that industry, irrespective of where it is housed, creates. You cannot say, "There is a block of land in the noxious and odoriferous industry estate that would have been suitable", without going through a very exhaustive environmental impact assessment on what it would mean for the water catchment areas of Lake Burley Griffin, as an example, and the other creeks and rivers around that area. You need to ensure that you do not create additional long-term jeopardy to the environment for some perceived short-term gain. I suggest to Mrs Carnell that the road to hell is paved with such good intentions as the one she outlined.
Mrs Carnell: Things like jobs.
MR LAMONT: There you are. The first thing she says is, "Things like jobs". I take it from that that, irrespective of how environmentally degrading any potential business is, Mrs Carnell says, "Go ahead and do it, if it creates five jobs or three jobs or two jobs". That is the sort of illogical approach that is coming to smack of Mrs - - -
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