Page 3566 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR SPEAKER: Sit down, Mr Stefaniak. The minister has not got to the question; he is not a half-minute into it yet.
MR HARGREAVES: Since Jon Stanhope won the 2001 election, he has put an extra $26 million into policing—
MR SPEAKER: He is coming to the question very quickly!
MR HARGREAVES: I know. They are frightening me—especially this police basher.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves! Come to the question.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, I am trying to come to the point of the question.
Mr Stefaniak: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. He did say “especially this police basher”?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, come to the subject matter of the question.
MR HARGREAVES: The question was whether we would resource it properly. We have put in $26 million since Stanhope came to government. We have changed policing in this town. We have a double-digit reduction in crime. I think we have the best police force in the country. We have the safest city. And it is just not good enough for the bloke over there.
NICTA
MS MacDONALD: My question is to Mr Quinlan, the minister for economic development. Minister, can you provide an update on the NICTA project and what benefits it will bring to the ACT?
MR QUINLAN: I thank Ms MacDonald for the timely question, given that yesterday, during a debate on the Mulcahy manifesto, I detected across the house a very keen interest in the NICTA project. I think it is appropriate that you ask this question today.
To give a bit of background, the ACT government has provided a package of $20 million for the new Canberra home of NICTA. This represents one of the largest commitments by any ACT government in its own economic future. The package includes $10 million for acquisition of land and $5 million for industry development initiatives, which include scholarships for local research and study, grants to ACT-based SMEs to encourage research, commercialisation and activities in the local ICT industry and up to $5 million in payroll tax waivers. Our investment has secured a $381 million commitment from the federal government over the next 10 years. Of that, $127 million will be spent in Canberra. This will directly create 100 new jobs and 100 PhD student positions.
The construction of the building to house NICTA in Canberra will result in nearly $60 million in additional investment in Canberra and up to 280 jobs during the course of construction. This represents guaranteed new investment of $187 million in Canberra during the first 10 years of NICTA, a nine times increase on the original investment. As
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .