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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1364 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

Biotechnology is used in research, development and manufacturing across a range of industries, such as health care, agriculture and food. It is generally accepted that biotechnology is a growth industry of the future, creating highly-skilled and highly-paid jobs, as well as harnessing the intellectual and creative power of researchers and scientists.

It is recognised, too, that communities which have a substantial research capacity are well placed to take advantage of the growth in this field. It is here that the ACT has a definite edge in Australia. The ACT has a small but rapidly expanding biotechnology industry, centred mainly on our research institutions at the CSIRO and the John Curtin School of Medical Research.

My department will be meeting shortly with the Centre for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture, or CAMBIA for short, which is based at the CSIRO's Black Mountain campus. Over the last six years CAMBIA has grown from two scientists to more than 35 and it has advised that it anticipates creating a further 15 positions over the next few years. As an internationally recognised institute in the field of technology development for agricultural biotechnology, CAMBIA has entered into relationships with some of the world's leading companies in this area, such as Monsanto, Dupont and Dow.

Mr Speaker, perhaps one of the most exciting developments in biotechnology around the world has been happening right here in the national capital. I am talking about Biotron, a company which was set up in Canberra to build on the work of researchers at the John Curtin School of Medical Research. Biotron is currently developing a number of products-14 to be precise-of which two, Virion and C-Test, are at an advanced stage.

Virion involves a compound which in laboratory tests stops the AIDS virus, while the C-Test project focuses on cancer diagnosis, working on a simple blood test which could one day detect all cancers. Since the discovery of Virion last year, researchers have moved into toxicology tests on animals and are now patenting the drug.

Mr Speaker, as members would well know, this government was the first to truly get behind the diversification of our economy and encourage the development of new industries that harness our intellectual strengths. Our successes in attracting information technology and advanced technology jobs and investment are growing and we are now working to promote biotechnology as a strength in Canberra, too.

To this end, the government was pleased to announce recently that it had decided to invest $250,000 through the Canberra business development fund as seed capital in Biotron to help build its research into commercial development. That was the business development fund's third major investment since its establishment as a joint venture between HIH, previously FAI, and the ACT government approximately 21/2 years ago. It is the latest example of our commitment to showing these industries and investors that this government is prepared to lead the way and show what a clever capital we have.

The ACT will benefit directly through the creation of 20 new research positions, rising to 30 over the next three years. Mr Speaker, it is fair to say that, while Australia has proven that it is capable of leading the world in innovative medical research, all too often

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