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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4112 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

It is clear that there is a great need for business itself to be involved in the fostering of innovation and entrepreneurship. The memorandum of understanding signed with the Wichita State University and between the Wichita State University and the University of Canberra will, in fact, progress that development in the ACT. We have recently seen the University of Canberra open its innovations centre. Let me tell you that the Wichita university is really a centre of innovation, which sounds crazy as it is a place out in the mid-west of the US.

Mr Stefaniak: Did you see the Wichita linesman?

MR QUINLAN: We didn't see him, but we certainly visited the first ever Pizza Hut, Bill, and met the guy that actually started that franchise. The man who started that franchise is still working with students within the university, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. In a number of areas, the Wichita State University, which also hosted our Cannons coach, Cal Bruton, is a leader in terms of the fostering of innovation and entrepreneurship and as an innovation centre, as is the University of Cambridge. They are generally managed by business people-not academics, not government representatives, but the business people of the region.

We visited Washington. The Greater Washington Initiative is, of course, bigger than what we might build in the ACT and call Business ACT. Nevertheless, it is doing the same thing on a grander scale. It is a conduit between business and major administration and major defence administration. We are well on the way to building a long-term relationship with the Greater Washington Initiative because we have so much in common and because Australia and Canberra are recognised as being very good-up there with the best of them-in terms of research and breadth of thinking.

We saw a similar model, I guess, but run in a British fashion in Cambridge, which also has an innovation centre. It is run by a Porsche-driving businessman, not an academic, and it has virtually got talent scouts on the campus chasing future entrepreneurs and innovators.

I think the visit demonstrates emphatically that there are actions that government can initiate to improve and grow innovation and entrepreneurship in their economies, but they can't do it alone, and we will be seeking greater interaction between universities, business and government in pursuing developments in the ACT. We will be pursuing links with the Greater Washington Initiative. We will be pursuing formal links with the London Development Authority, with which we also had very constructive engagements. If we all take a positive view on this development process, the future of Canberra will be nothing but sensational. We really do have the embryo here of a very successful knowledge economy and an economy that can develop in today's world and tomorrow's world.

Paper

Mr Wood presented the following paper:

Cultural Facilities Act, pursuant to section 29 (3)-Cultural Facilities Corporation-Quarterly Report (for the First Quarter 2002/2003: 1 July to 30 September 2002).

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