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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 2224 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

I think it is worth pointing out that the value of this kind of publicity runs into tens of thousands of dollars and exposes the Australian capital region to a huge audience and potential tourism market. I am sure all members, with perhaps the exception of Mr Berry as usual, would join with me in congratulating CTEC on this and other initiatives in which they have been involved in promoting the tourist product. They really do a great job, Mr Speaker. Their enthusiasm is very real, even when they have been under real pressure such as in recent days. They do come in for a lot of flak, Mr Speaker, from some people in this building, so I felt it was important today to highlight some of the really good work that they have done.

Mr Speaker, I would like also to add the work that CTEC have put into the promotion of Floriade this year, again under an enormous amount of pressure from some members in this place. I think everyone who goes down to Floriade would be able to see that they have done an absolutely stunning job, as has Totalcare in the landscape area, in putting together probably one of the best Floriades that we have seen for a long time. I think members would have read some comments in the Canberra Times of recent days from some real experts in the gardening area, suggesting that it was one of the best Floriades that we have seen for a while. They believe that it was definitely worth the money. It has been great to see so many people coming out of Floriade saying that they thought that it was money very well spent. Again, Mr Speaker, I would like to thank CTEC for their huge commitment in that area, and of course in the area of the visiting journalists program as well.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care) (5.23): Mr Speaker, I want to recognise today a very special event in the history of Australia. One hundred years ago Howard Florey was born on this day. Recently I named a building, which is soon to be the home of the Health Protection Service of the Department of Health and Community Care, as Howard Florey Centenary House. It is a section of what was formerly the Holder High School.

Howard Florey was one of the greatest Australians. I mean just that, Mr Speaker. He was one of the greatest Australians. How many in our history could claim to have been the leader in work which effectively saved millions and millions of lives? Florey was the Australian who led the team which developed the therapeutic value for penicillin after others before him had refined it to a usable state. Late in the Second World War penicillin was made available to Allied troops in the field, and it was little short of miraculous. No doubt there are Australians we all know who fought in that war and who owe their lives to the great man.

This day is his centenary. Florey was born in Adelaide on 24 September 1898. He was a toddler, of course, when the next century rolled around. He was to go on to other great things too, Mr Speaker, well beyond the penicillin era. Florey was a central figure in the establishment of the Australian National University, and, in particular, the John Curtin School of Medical Research. He was elected President of the Royal Society in Britain, the first Australian to take that position. In 1944 he was knighted, and a year later he received the Nobel prize for his penicillin work. He was indeed a great man.

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