Page 3820 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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Revolve. I will not go there, in deference to Mr Hargreaves, who is here in the chamber. There is Aussie Junk. More recently, we have had Belconnen waste recycling and the very poor support of Renewable Processes.
One of the things that seems obvious from all of this is that to the extent that the ACT government has any green economy strategy, it does not seem to be proactively putting it into action. I think it is probably reflecting a lack of strategy, but these are all businesses which have been actively trying to do the right thing from an environmental point of view. They are all businesses that have been having problems as businesses.
The ACT government does have a small amount of business development. I guess that what we are suggesting is that possibly the government could employ a dedicated green business adviser to provide assistance and support for businesses who are providing grants or other green business incentives or, in fact, just green businesses as a whole. I suppose that business and industry development is part of the Economic Directorate. It could play a role directly. Advice from BID to such companies could be proactively offered through government agencies in response to requests for business help. I am sure that this is an area where better interdepartmental communications in those situations would be beneficial to all parties.
TAMS was aware for a very long time that some of the businesses out there had problems. On the basis of the briefings that we have had with TAMS, they did not proactively say, “We think there are other people in business and industry development who might be able to help you with your business problems.” That is something which might have—
At 6 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MS LE COUTEUR: The other business I would like to talk about is Renewable Processes, which has significantly invested in establishing an e-waste recycling facility to allow local processing and social employment. It wrote to the estimates committee and reported they had received differing advice from different agencies about a potential e-waste contract with the ACT government. Procurement Solutions did not give them any information, while at the same time NoWaste was assuring Renewable Processes that they would be getting contracts awarded to them. Renewable Processes planned their business around the expected work.
However, twice significant contracts were issued to companies that do not process locally. What is going on here? The Greens would like to see the government supporting significant recycling and significant green businesses in the ACT. Given the ongoing problems that we have had with waste and recycling businesses, it would be worth while looking at those as a specific area of business and working out how best to have viable businesses.
One of the other things that this touches upon is why have we got so much out there in the recycling estates to recycle. I think we should be doing a lot more source
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