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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2493 ..

opportunities that the sector will offer. The government will focus on ensuring that defence procurement takes account of local business capability and that the department of defence is better connected with local suppliers. In addition to that work, we are required to improve the level of retained expenditure in the region.

Other significant aspects of the defence activities include ACT-specific industry capability mapping to market back into the department of defence, connecting new defence needs to the local research and development capability through NICTA, DSTO and others, and offering significant opportunities to turn new defence technology needs into local opportunities.

How are we going to achieve this? We already have dedicated staff working directly with defence, the security sector, through the sector development unit in BusinessACT. We are already developing a defence industry database as part of the capability mapping exercise. We are already working through the Capital Region Defence Industry Committee that has been set up and which operates by connecting most of the businesses that are interested in defence to each other. BusinessACT is, of course, working with them.

Canberra is home to scores of companies providing services and products to the defence industry including ATI, Codorra Advanced Systems, CEA Technologies, CES Solutions, Wet PC Allied Technologies Group, the Distillery and many others. Many of these companies have been recipients of ACT government assistance through the knowledge fund and other programs. Even as we speak, the ACT is represented at the defence and industry conference that Mr Hargreaves mentioned in his question.

This government is working hard to further develop a vibrant sector of our economy and take advantage of the opportunities. We intend to keep producing policies and initiatives like this, which have substance, as opposed to the very thin, glib policy that was put out by the opposition, which borrowed so heavily from the content of the economic white paper that they criticised at the same time.

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. How does this activity fit in with the overall objectives of the economic white paper? Can the minister inform the Assembly about other initiatives this government has put in place to support business in the ACT?

Mrs Dunne: Mr Speaker, I wish to raise a point of order. I seek your ruling on whether the second part of Mr Hargreaves’s supplementary question fits with the original question.

MR SPEAKER: How does this activity fit in with the economic white paper? I think that is relevant.

MR QUINLAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Through the economic white paper we identified nine priority business sectors. So I expect to see at least nine thin policy papers coming from the other side sooner or later—ICT, Biotechnology, defence, public administration, sports science and administration, environment management, space science, creative industries and education.

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