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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2223 ..

MS CARNELL: I am happy to finish if everyone wants to make sure that they do not go past that, if everyone else is happy with that. I am happy to finish, Mr Speaker, on the basis that that is an agreement.

Mr Quinlan: Whatever you talk to anybody can talk to, but not beyond? Is that the rule?

MS CARNELL: I do not know. I thought you were saying you did not want to give me an extension.

Mr Corbell: No, we are not saying that

MR SPEAKER: Continue, Chief Minister.

Mr Corbell: All we are saying is that every member has two lots of 10 minutes if they want to take them. It is that simple.

MS CARNELL: I am happy not to have an extension.

MR SPEAKER: You have not taken the second block of 10 minutes.

MS CARNELL: I know. Thank you. Importantly, 72 per cent of firms in Canberra are connected to the Internet, compared with an average of only 60 per cent across the nation, while 69 per cent regularly use e-mails in their businesses. That also is backed up outside the business area by the Bureau of Statistics, which revealed that 35 per cent of Canberra households now had access to the Internet and 68 per cent had home computer access, the highest in Australia.

Mr Corbell: Sixty-eight per cent of 35 per cent?

MS CARNELL: No, 68 per cent had computers. We will not have an argument across the chamber on this. I agree with Mr Corbell very strongly that it is important to make computers as available and as affordable as is possible to people on low incomes or people who are socially disadvantaged. The government is currently speaking to a number of groups, looking at how we can facilitate this in the future. The future, not just of Canberra but of the whole of Australia, is as a knowledge-based society, and the ACT wants to maintain its position at the forefront.

That is the reason we have supported TransACT. TransACT, without doubt, is one of the most exciting projects we have seen for a long time in the ACT. TransACT will provide high-speed Internet broadband connection to 95 per cent of Canberra's households and businesses over the next 18 months. This will give local people a real opportunity to play a part in knowledge industries and the knowledge-based society of the future.

Mr Speaker, I thank members for their comments on the Chief Minister's Department.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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