Page 4002 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 25 November 2014
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heard Mr Smyth talk about how we need to diversify our economy, yet I continue to be amazed at the lack of concrete ideas that come forward. We hear a champion performance on identifying the problems but a last-place performance on identifying what the solutions to them might be.
One of the problems, as Mr Barr has touched on, that we find in this place is that quite a few of the issues arising come under the federal jurisdiction and the role of the commonwealth government. That makes it very difficult to solve some of these problems at a local level. There was a great example in this morning’s Canberra Times where it was reported that an engineering science researcher has won an Australian Academy of Science award for pioneering cheaper and more efficient solar energy. This is the type of Canberra-based research that can lead to start-up industries of the future with an enormous export potential.
What have we had in response from the federal government? We have seen cuts to scientific research. We have seen them drop the price on carbon, which would, of course, help promote these kinds of technologies, and we are seeing attempts to wind back the renewable energy target. All of these policies are in direct contradiction to the attempts of researchers to get businesses going in Australia that will provide a long-term sustainable economic base for this country and, in our case, for this city. That makes a mockery of some of the arguments that we hear brought into this place by Mr Smyth and his colleagues.
In contrast, the Greens, in my time in this place and even prior to that, have brought a whole range of ideas and initiatives to this place to try and promote small business, because we know that small business is a real generator of jobs, particularly compared to spending a lot of money bringing in a large, flashy company, which makes for a great media announcement. What we do know is that building up small business from the ground and getting local industries going means they tend to employ more people and really create significant local economic opportunity.
Certainly, as the TAMS minister, I have been looking at a number of initiatives around issues such as how do we make our local shopping centres more vital and help small businesses in these places. Some very simple examples would be the local shopping centre upgrades and the 40-kilometre-an-hour zones around town centres that are now moving to group centres. These sorts of things create the right environment that makes it possible for small business to flourish. With things like the Bunda Street shareway, research shows that those sorts of environments actually improve economic performance for businesses in the area.
Earlier this year I hosted a food security roundtable which brought together a broad range of stakeholders, including primary producers and urban food producers, distributors and retailers, including farmers markets, consumers such as restaurants and caterers and even advocacy organisations. The roundtable focused on the fact that, in the context of increasing threats of climate change and peak oil, food security is an ever-growing and significant issue. We spent quite a bit of time looking at what can be done in the ACT to increase the amount of food production taking place within the territory. This obviously presents opportunities in terms of both food security and local economic initiatives. I believe agriculture has a role in diversifying the ACT and
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