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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 1349 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

The company is called Deja View and it is an advanced technology company which has devised a state-of-the-art new surveillance system which we believe will revolutionise the security industry. The name of this product is securecam. In simple terms, securecam replaces the need for videorecorders and videotapes, using digital imagery and storage technology. A prototype has already been installed in a major petrol depot in Sydney but the company needed a capital injection to finalise development and to be able to tool up for initial manufacture. With the help of the Business Development Fund, Mr Speaker, it is now able to do just that.

To make it even more exciting, Mr Speaker, already orders have been placed by Shell Australia and by Honeywell. There is interest from companies right around the world in the many applications that this new technology has to offer. Deja View and the board of the Business Development Fund are confident that many more buyers will soon emerge. Deja View has estimated that a minimum of 15 new jobs will be created in Canberra, and over the next two years more than $1.5m will be invested in our local economy each year when securecam is fully developed. Mr Speaker, the Government was really excited about the development, though it appeared that those opposite really could not give a damn.

There are many local companies, Mr Speaker, that we believe have the sort of advanced technology that can be exported outside the ACT if the right support is there. That is the basis of the Business Development Fund, a fund that those opposite have been very critical of, as recently as in the last Estimates Committee report. Those opposite have been critical of the business incentive scheme because they believe that we are acting too quickly, jumping in and supporting companies that maybe we should not support. Then they were very critical of the Business Development Fund because we were taking too long to support anyone. It seems generally, from the government perspective, that it is impossible to win, Mr Speaker.

The reason why it took 18 months was to ensure that the Territory's money, the Territory's investment, was protected, and I think the wait has been well worth while. This is an innovative approach from the ACT Government, and I have to say it is wonderful to be partnering such an innovative company in the area of advanced technology. I am sure, Mr Speaker, that this is the beginning of many investments for the Canberra Business Development Fund, a fund that I am sure will be greatly beneficial to the Canberra community, contrary, again, to the views of those opposite.

MR KAINE: My question, through you, Mr Speaker, is to the Attorney-General. Mr Humphries, as the chief law officer of the Territory, would you not agree that possession of stolen goods knowing them to be stolen is at best reprehensible but at worst an offence against the law?

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