Mr MITCHELL - 2000-06-14
Weeds in the Northern Territory are a problem to people in the pastoral industry and also in tourism and other areas. Can the minister tell us of any new technologies that are coming on line to help fight this problem?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, before answering the question I want to announce to the House and to Territorians a major award ...
Mr Toyne: I did that yesterday!
Mr PALMER: Yes, I know you did. You said a lot of things yesterday in adjournment. George Bernard Shaw’s quote applies to you very aptly: ‘He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches’. This is the only person in history to do an adjournment speech lauding his own personal achievements - not political achievements on behalf of the community but those that he achieved himself.
Mr Burke: On the Internet.
Mr PALMER: On the Internet.
The Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries has been awarded a major award from the Computer World Smithsonian annual awards program. I think it is worth putting into context the prestigious nature of this award by the Smithsonian Institute. The program brings together the chairmen or chief executive officers of 100 leading information technology companies from around the world to help the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History document a revolution in progress - the information technology revolution that is now producing and continues to produce the Information Age. I quote from the institute’s literature:
Established in 1988, the program is dedicated to identifying the men and women, organisations and institutions that are leading the information technology revolution and to capturing the history of their impact on the world on-line, in the written word, photography, video and other appropriate media.
This program is logoed ‘A Search for New Heroes’. The Department of Primary Industry’s weed mapping ...
Members interjecting.
Mr PALMER: The continued inaudible drivel from the member for Stuart adds nothing to the processes of this House, and the continued inane drivel from the Leader of the Opposition does even less.
The department’s weed mapping management program was included among 440 laureates in 11 categories. In the category of environment, energy and agriculture the other finalists nominated, to give an appreciation of their status, were: Amerada Hess Corp, nominated by SAP America; Arizona Electric Power Corp, nominated by J D Edwards; Consolidated Edison Co of New York, nominated by Microsoft Corporation; Consumers Energy, also nominated by Microsoft; Duke Energy North America, nominated by Ernst & Young; GPU Energy, nominated by Deloitte Consulting; Illinios Power Co, nominated by Compaq Computers; Itron Inc, by J D Edwards; Life Frames, by Apple Computers; Northeast Utilities, by Sybase Inc; Ocean Energy and Merak Projects Ltd, by Microsoft again; PJM Interconnection, by Anderson Consulting; the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, nominated by Sybase; the US Environmental Protection Agency, nominated by SAS Institute; and Xunta de Galicia - Conselleria Medio Ambiente, nominated by Anderson Consulting. That will demonstrate just how prestigious these awards are.
My department, having been nominated for the environment, energy and agriculture award, was invited by the Smithsonian Institute to attend the announcement of the winners of each category, and my department has won that award. It is something of which all Territorians can be justifiably proud and I pay special tribute to Kate Sanford-Readhead of my department and the team she has with her on this program not only for being recognised by the Smithsonian Institute and Computer World, which I understand is probably the world’s leading weekly technology information newspaper, but also for the work they continue to do to try to manage the weed problem we have in the Northern Territory.
We are one-sixth of continental Australia, yet we do not have the fiscal resources that other states have in terms of money available per hectare. We are sparsely populated and we have regions where weeds can go unnoticed for some period of time before being brought to our attention, thus making the eradication process and the control processes very much harder. The program put together by Kate Sanford-Readhead, attempts to map weeds using the latest-technology GPS systems so that we can set about planning proper control and eradication.
I thank especially the Madge Corporation and the CEO of that corporation, who nominated this program of my department. For the elucidation and benefit of the members opposite, I was quite prepared to pay the air fares of Kate and her team across to the Smithsonian Institute to receive this award, but the Madge Corporation paid lock, stock and barrel for my staff to attend.. I think that in itself is recognition of the very, very good work they are doing and the prestigious nature of the award they received.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, before answering the question I want to announce to the House and to Territorians a major award ...
Mr Toyne: I did that yesterday!
Mr PALMER: Yes, I know you did. You said a lot of things yesterday in adjournment. George Bernard Shaw’s quote applies to you very aptly: ‘He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches’. This is the only person in history to do an adjournment speech lauding his own personal achievements - not political achievements on behalf of the community but those that he achieved himself.
Mr Burke: On the Internet.
Mr PALMER: On the Internet.
The Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries has been awarded a major award from the Computer World Smithsonian annual awards program. I think it is worth putting into context the prestigious nature of this award by the Smithsonian Institute. The program brings together the chairmen or chief executive officers of 100 leading information technology companies from around the world to help the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History document a revolution in progress - the information technology revolution that is now producing and continues to produce the Information Age. I quote from the institute’s literature:
Established in 1988, the program is dedicated to identifying the men and women, organisations and institutions that are leading the information technology revolution and to capturing the history of their impact on the world on-line, in the written word, photography, video and other appropriate media.
This program is logoed ‘A Search for New Heroes’. The Department of Primary Industry’s weed mapping ...
Members interjecting.
Mr PALMER: The continued inaudible drivel from the member for Stuart adds nothing to the processes of this House, and the continued inane drivel from the Leader of the Opposition does even less.
The department’s weed mapping management program was included among 440 laureates in 11 categories. In the category of environment, energy and agriculture the other finalists nominated, to give an appreciation of their status, were: Amerada Hess Corp, nominated by SAP America; Arizona Electric Power Corp, nominated by J D Edwards; Consolidated Edison Co of New York, nominated by Microsoft Corporation; Consumers Energy, also nominated by Microsoft; Duke Energy North America, nominated by Ernst & Young; GPU Energy, nominated by Deloitte Consulting; Illinios Power Co, nominated by Compaq Computers; Itron Inc, by J D Edwards; Life Frames, by Apple Computers; Northeast Utilities, by Sybase Inc; Ocean Energy and Merak Projects Ltd, by Microsoft again; PJM Interconnection, by Anderson Consulting; the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, nominated by Sybase; the US Environmental Protection Agency, nominated by SAS Institute; and Xunta de Galicia - Conselleria Medio Ambiente, nominated by Anderson Consulting. That will demonstrate just how prestigious these awards are.
My department, having been nominated for the environment, energy and agriculture award, was invited by the Smithsonian Institute to attend the announcement of the winners of each category, and my department has won that award. It is something of which all Territorians can be justifiably proud and I pay special tribute to Kate Sanford-Readhead of my department and the team she has with her on this program not only for being recognised by the Smithsonian Institute and Computer World, which I understand is probably the world’s leading weekly technology information newspaper, but also for the work they continue to do to try to manage the weed problem we have in the Northern Territory.
We are one-sixth of continental Australia, yet we do not have the fiscal resources that other states have in terms of money available per hectare. We are sparsely populated and we have regions where weeds can go unnoticed for some period of time before being brought to our attention, thus making the eradication process and the control processes very much harder. The program put together by Kate Sanford-Readhead, attempts to map weeds using the latest-technology GPS systems so that we can set about planning proper control and eradication.
I thank especially the Madge Corporation and the CEO of that corporation, who nominated this program of my department. For the elucidation and benefit of the members opposite, I was quite prepared to pay the air fares of Kate and her team across to the Smithsonian Institute to receive this award, but the Madge Corporation paid lock, stock and barrel for my staff to attend.. I think that in itself is recognition of the very, very good work they are doing and the prestigious nature of the award they received.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016