Dave Tollner (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this adjournment debate to draw the attention of the chamber to the absolutely marvellous support scheme being conducted for small businesses by the Darwin Business Enterprise Centre. The Darwin BEC assists local small business owners and operators and provides support to those people starting up a business in the Top End of the Northern Territory. The BEC has an excellent board of directors who bring great experience and energy to the BEC, and I outline them as follows. The chairman is Mr Bruce Mouatt and other directors are Bob Pettit, Lyn Bennett, Kerry Moir, Vic Minchin, Tim Proctor, Alison Huck and Mike Walker.

The Top End Business Development Centre, also known as the TEBDC, is one of the BEC’s and Darwin’s flagship programs. The TEBDC is a small business incubator spread over two campuses in Darwin’s industrial area of Winnellie and Palmerston. The TEBDC has recently undergone a revitalisation, and I thank Peter Lillibridge for his dedicated leadership there. There are currently over 25 tenants in the two locations, including Tableaux Group owned by Tina Jones. This is a training business that offers accounting solutions for businesses and individuals and management accounting services including MYOB.

JKY and Associates, owned by John Youseff who is a CPA, also provides small business accounting services and start-up advice. HPD Hydrotech Pipeline Design, owned by Brian and Marie Petrie, offers hydraulic engineering services, fire services, hydraulics and a range of other services. Priority eBusiness owned by David Head specialises in building database systems to increase business efficiency, making it easier for business to get online with website design, hosting and domain name registration. A major incubator success story is Fusion Joinery and Fusion Displays and Graphics, owned by Michael Dickinson and Shandelle Judd. Fusion has recently moved from the incubator to mainstream commercial premises and is a perfect example of the TEBDC’s success. This very successful business has been a long-term tenant of the TEBDC and has recently moved into some very large premises of its own.

Other people and businesses currently taking advantage of the program are Will Tinapple and Danielle Green from Formation Studios, Mike Walker from Financial and Bookkeeping Services, Tim O’Donnell from Disability Works Australia, Dave Rumball from Western Advance, Adrian Lucas from Data Visual Link and Kate Pickering from Eventuate. Clearly, the BEC is a force to be reckoned with and will greatly add to the enhancement of small business in the Territory. In particular, I thank Jack Hughes, the manager of the BEC, and his staff for their efforts in helping Top End business. I congratulate the BEC on its work in creating new jobs and protecting existing jobs in the Territory. I commend to the parliament the work of this organisation and associated businesses and I look forward to the even greater success of small business in Darwin.

In visiting this organisation some weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting all of the people who work in that centre and of seeing the way in which businesses are being incubated. They are all pioneers of the Territory. They show the pioneering spirit and are emblematical of everything that the Territory was built on. They are entrepreneurial and dedicated to the cause—and they are out there, having a go. Without organisations like these and the people who go into their making, the Territory would be a much poorer place. As I said, I commend the work that the BEC is doing and I wish it every success in the future.

Question agreed to.