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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (6 September) . . Page.. 2913 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

to tender again and I do not think they won the tender this time. That is an ongoing scenario. That tender has been out on a number of occasions and different entities have won that tender to give business advice. I seem to remember that the chamber of commerce did not pick up the tender last time. I have to say that I cannot shed any light on that at all.

The ACT government has a whole range of business incentive approaches and business help, not the least of which is Business Gateway, a one-stop shop approach for business advice in the ACT. It is accessible in a number of different ways. Business Gateway gives people who are looking at setting up business a telephone number and an internet address whereby they can access information about all of the business licences and all of the business requirements that they may need for a particular style of business. I seem to remember that Business Gateway recently indicated that they had had something like a quarter of a million hits on that site, so it is going extremely well.

Business Gateway is also going into a new phase with Business Gateway 2, which will allow people to not just access forms and requirements on line and download them but also will allow people to fill them in and submit on line and submit payments on line as well. This will be a whole new step forward which I think will be a great benefit to those people in the business community who cannot access shopfronts between 9 am and 5 pm, or do not want to access during normal business hours and want to get information 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as they can on Business Gateway.

Mr Quinlan: I guess this is one that you will take on notice, Chief Minister.

MS CARNELL: Well, without knowing who the person is-

Mr Humphries: How can she? We don't know who it is.

MR QUINLAN: This is a supplementary question. Do we no longer redirect potential businesses to the chamber of commerce?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, we would give people who are interested information about all of the business support groups in Canberra. The chamber of commerce is the largest. There is a whole range of different entities. I certainly will not say we will not give the chamber of commerce number to people who are looking at starting a business in the ACT.

Mr Quinlan: Well, will you tell them it is the chamber of commerce?

MS CARNELL: It would strike me as quite a normal thing to do. In fact, if somebody was looking at starting up a pharmacy I might even give them the pharmacy guild's number, and if they were looking at becoming a lawyer we might give them the law society phone number. You never know, Mr Speaker. If that is what they want, why wouldn't we give that information? Mr Speaker, I am distressed that the person involved did not get access to Business Gateway.

Mr Hargreaves: What about the TLC?

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