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

The member for Lowe might be interested to know that the previous speaker, the member for Prospect, advocated no airport at Badgerys Creek. What he is advocating is reducing curfews at Sydney airport and extending that runway. It will be interesting to see whether the member for Lowe agrees with that statement. People in my electorate have good reason to be proud of the achievements of local business and industry over the past 11 years, but changing global markets are presenting new challenges and opportunities. Many of our local companies are meeting the challenge due, in part, to the strong backing of the Howard government’s $1.4 billion industry statement which was released earlier this month.

A clever invention from a Darwin based company, SRA Information Technology, received funding under the industry package to help develop its groundbreaking EnviroSys product. The environmental information management system has been designed to monitor environment data and send an alert when health, safety and community and environmental standards are breached. The software measures comply with environmental law, encouraging environmentally sustainable practices and improved environmental management. The system is currently being installed at BHP Billiton to manage its health, safety and environmental and community data. The company is about to open a new office in Singapore next month and is staking out a claim as a world leader in the environmental technology arena. Much of the credit for the development of SRA must go to its CEO, Steven Rowe; to the R&D team, led by Peter Greig, SRA’s environmental business manager; and to Stuart Van de Water, EnviroSys’s product manager. The Howard government’s support for innovative companies such as SRA Information Technology is important, because the products and services they develop hold the key to the future job, export and economic growth of Australia.

Under the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement, local companies can explore opportunities. Darwin based shade sails manufacturing company, Aerosail, started shipping to the US three years ago and, under the FTA, is exempt from paying stamp duty. Exports of shade and tension membrane sails make up half of Aerosail’s business to the United States, Canada, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, India and Pakistan. I congratulate Aerosail’s managing director, James Taylor, and his staff on producing designs, fabrication techniques and materials which are world-class and can withstand the most extreme conditions. The industry statement will help address critical changes facing Australia’s manufacturing sector in an increasingly globalised economy, and companies such as SRA Information Technology and Aerosail can develop opportunities— (Time expired)