Page 1798 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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acknowledging them? Why aren’t we supporting them? I am really unclear as to what the government is actually planning to do. It is very light on detail. I would like to see something that actually makes a difference. It does not just mean that when you are filling in a government tender you have another page to fill in regarding all the local people that you employ, maybe with pictures of them or whatever. We actually need something that makes a difference.
With respect to reinvigorating the branding of Canberra, it was good to hear about that but Ms Porter’s speech left out the federal government. While I am in favour of diversification we also need to remember that the federal government are our major employer and right now they are actively trying to move employment outside Canberra. We need to talk to them as well as to the rest of the private industry.
Obviously I am in favour of an investment facilitation function. I think Mr Smyth spoke a little bit about how that used to be. It is probably good to see that being reinvented. With respect to Indigenous enterprise development, again, it is a great idea.
With respect to expanding grants programs, we do not have enough detail to make any comment about that. With respect to specific supports for clean tech development, I will talk about that a bit more when I move my amendment. With respect to investing in NICTA, I think that everyone would agree that NICTA has been one of the success stories of innovation in the ACT. It is good to see that the ACT government intends to give it more money and intends to work more closely with it. I am very hopeful that some really positive innovation will come out of that.
The my digital city innovation prize seems to be a good idea. I have with me my copy of the digital city proposal from the Canberra Business Council. I would really like to know—maybe Ms Porter can answer this in her summing up—how much of this program is actually planned to be implemented by the government.
I now move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:
Insert, before paragraph (1):
“(1A) the importance of moving the ACT economy towards a clean economy and fostering the growth of green business;”.
This is something that the Greens have been banging on about ever since we have been in the Assembly. My predecessors have done it, and it was part of our agreement with the Labor Party that a detailed business strategy with appropriate incentives to support the ongoing growth of the green economy be developed. We did agree with the Labor Party to roll this in with the more general business strategy because we recognise that there are a lot of similarities between all the parts of business. So we do not disagree with that.
However we think there has not been enough emphasis on the clean, green part of the economy as part of this strategy. It needed more than one line. It needs to look at the fact that we support the clean, green economy to a large extent by walking the walk, not just talking the talk as in this strategy. Walking the walk: energy efficient
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