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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Tuesday, 3 August 2004) . . Page.. 3329 ..

MS MacDONALD: I ask a supplementary question. Are there any other initiatives that are not covered by the BRW report?

MR QUINLAN: It is not enough for this government to take into account what has happened and to say, “Those are our initiatives.” This government has announced the Canberra-California Bridge program in which 12 or more Canberra businesses, through distance learning, will be put through a developmental process similar to the process through which embryonic businesses in San Diego or Los Angeles are put.

Mrs Dunne: Point of order. Is this an announcement of a new initiative? If it is, it is out of order.

MR SPEAKER: The question that I heard related to initiatives that were not mentioned in the Business Review Weekly report.

Mrs Dunne: Is this issue an announcement of a new initiative?

MR SPEAKER: If it is, it is up to the minister. A member cannot ask a minister to announce policy.

MR QUINLAN: I have announced this initiative before. This government will be putting 12 or more agencies or companies through a process similar to the process through which they would go if they were embryonic companies in San Diego or Los Angeles. They will go through a very rigorous process through distance learning in association with the LDA and UCSD CONNECT. Three or four companies that will be selected will go to the United States of America and go through that full program.

I hope that those companies will be scrubbed and polished and presented to the world of partners, businesses and venture capital financing. This government is doing positive things that were not done by any former government. As I said earlier, this is an amazing juxtaposition. On one hand opposition members are claiming that the benefits that have been implemented by this government are something that they did previously. On the other hand they are saying, ironically, that any problems that are being addressed by this government emerged only recently and they knew nothing about them.

MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.

Supplementary answer to question without notice

Canberra Hospital—emergency policy

MR WOOD: Just to elaborate on the answer to a question that Mr Smyth asked me: as you would expect, a disaster mode in the hospital is used for things such as a power failure, a building collapse, a chemical spill or a bomb hoax or a bomb scare. As I have indicated, a plan is in place. If you want to see it, write me a letter.

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