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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4404 ..

liability because of the failure of the previous government to respond to issues about fire safety.

Mr Humphries: That is not an excuse for misusing Treasurer's Advance.

MR CORBELL: You can't imagine, Mr Speaker-

Mr Smyth: When did you find out? You are the one who is the subject of the report.

Mr Cornwell: There is more wriggling here than in a reptile zoo.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Are there any further questions without notice? I call Ms MacDonald.

WetPC Pty Ltd

MS MacDONALD: My question is to the Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism. Can the minister inform the Assembly of a recent success by an ACT company?

MR QUINLAN: It is good to be able to bring some good news into this place on a day when we can anticipate some turgid debates, long bows being drawn and some extreme dissembling.

Mr Speaker, on Tuesday I participated in the signing of a sub-licence agreement between the ACT Company WetPC and a US company, OHAI Technologies Corporation, which is likely to see a significant expansion of WetPC in the ACT and internationally. WetPC Pty Ltd is an innovative Canberra-based IT company that has developed, and is now commercialising, a one-handed interface which provides a totally new way of controlling mobile computing devices. We musicians know about chords and it has to do with adopting that technology.

Mr Hargreaves: You are a guitarist?

MR QUINLAN: I know two guitar chords, actually. The concept, originally prototyped by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, has been fully licensed by WetPC and further developed for commercialisation as the world's first wearable underwater computer-the Wet PC.

WetPC is to sub-license its innovative user interface technology to the US firm OHAI, which will enable OHAI to commercialise the technology, in conjunction with its own patented input system, for use in a range of mobile hand-held devices worldwide.

OHAI Technologies has already established strategic alliances with companies in China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. It is envisaged that the sub-licence agreement with WetPC will provide a strong footing for the ACT's company's move into a projected multi-billion dollar global market.

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