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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 2642 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

services industry in this country. This survey confirms beyond any shadow of doubt the remarkable growth of Canberra as an information technology hub under this government, and we are very proud of that. This is despite the territory's relatively small population base. We might not actually be a silicone valley just yet but I think we could maybe already almost call ourselves a silicone gully, and growing very quickly into a valley.

The Bureau of Statistics found that the growth rate of ACT computing services was the highest in Australia over the past four years. It also found that the territory's share of business, employment and income were all well above our share of the national population. According to the ABS the computer services industry in the ACT grew by a massive 23 per cent between 1995-96 and 1998-99-faster than any other state or territory-compared with a national annualised growth rate of 15 per cent over the same period.

As at June 1999 there were 729 computing services businesses in the ACT, or about 5 per cent of the total number of companies across Australia, even though the territory's share of the national population is only 1.6 per cent. These businesses employed 4,205 people in Canberra, which represents about 6 per cent of the total national employment in this industry-again, well above the ACT's share of the Australian population. The annualised growth in employment in the computing services industry in Canberra was 24 per cent between 1995-96 and 1998-99, the fastest in Australia.

Total income from the industry in Canberra in 1998-99 was $622.3 million, representing 6 per cent of the total income generated nationally. The annualised growth rate in income of these Canberra businesses was 26 per cent, well above the rates of any other state or territory and the national growth rate of just 9 per cent. While the industry average income per business nationally was $711,000, firms operating in the ACT earned an average of $853,600 per business, the highest of all states or territories.

It is interesting to note the perception that we have got a lot of computing services businesses that are really smaller than other computing services businesses in Australia. But these figures show that not only do we have more but they are actually on average bigger than similar businesses in other parts of Australia.

When we came to government five years ago we committed ourselves to a long-term plan of helping to diversify the business base and targeting new and emerging industries for growth. We recognised early that this city's future lay in encouraging the expansion of smart, clean private sector industries such as information technology.

Mr Quinlan suggested a moment ago-and, of course, Mr Speaker, we do not listen to interjections-that this has got nothing to do with the ACT government; that it is all to do with outsourcing; that the reason we have this huge amount of growth in the ACT is outsourcing. But they have attacked outsourcing. They suggested that outsourcing was the worst thing that had ever happened to the ACT. They are simply not consistent.

I heard the Labor Party say that this government does not know anything about business. In fact, Mr Quinlan said yesterday that we did not understand business and that we did not know how to generate more business or employment in the ACT. Well, Mr Speaker, we now have the highest growth rate and the lowest unemployment rate in this country.

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