9 May 2002 Legislative Assembly 1357 THURSDAY, 9 MAY 2002 Mr SPEAKER (Hon. R. K. Hollis, Redcliffe) read prayers and took the chair at 9.30 a.m. PETITIONS Coominya Fishing Club; Wivenhoe Dam Mr Livingstone from 2,982 petitioners, requesting the House to (a) require the Coominya Fishing Club to remove the locked gate at McLean's Point and (b) not allow or consider further leasing of land to private fishing clubs along the Wivenhoe Dam shoreline. Recreational Fishing, Hervey Bay Mr McNamara from 3,140 petitioners, requesting the House to amend the Fisheries Regulations to declare the southern part of Hervey Bay and the Great Sandy Strait a recreational only fishing area. Tewantin Fire and Rescue Station Ms Molloy from 9,109 petitioners, requesting the House to take all necessary steps to ensure the continuation of the Tewantin Fire and Rescue Station and related services and that the facility be extended to protect the continually expanding population, health, aged and other care facilities as well as the increasingly significant environmental areas. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT Queensland BioCapital Fund Hon. P. D. BEATTIE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (Premier and Minister for Trade) (9.32 a.m.), by leave: Today I am delighted to announce a major breakthrough in investment in the Smart State. Today the Treasurer and I will announce, along with the QIC, a government owned corporation, that $100 million has been committed to a Queensland based venture capital fund to invest in biotechnology. I detail today that the fund will be managed by the Queensland government's fund management arm, the Queensland Investment Corporation. QIC designed this fund on the model of successful US biotechnology venture capital funds, with the aim of producing high returns to its government clients by investing in an area which is underserviced in Australia. The fund will be named the Queensland BioCapital Fund and will be a closed-end fund with a life of 10 years. In the first four years the fund will invest in about 20 biotechnology projects which it considers capable of providing commercial returns in the foreseeable future. The most promising of these projects will be brought to market by adding not only money but also management, global investors and strategic partnerships. Over the following years the fund will exit its investments, mostly by trade sale or share market listings. The fund will provide high returns for QIC clients while at the same time encouraging the growth of an important new industry in the Smart State. Queensland has some great scientists. Today we are backing them. Venture capital is not just pouring money over science and hoping it grows. For a scientific project to achieve commercial success we need to add management skills such as product development, manufacturing and marketing. The Queensland BioCapital Fund will lead to the creation of successful biotechnology companies which are based here and sell their products throughout the world. QIC has developed a relationship with Uniseed Pty Ltd to provide access to early-stage biotechnology start-up ventures arising out of Australian universities and research organisations. Uniseed is Australia's first university based pre-seed capital fund, established to create a high quality deal flow suitable for late-stage investment. Uniseed was established as a joint venture between the universities of Queensland and Melbourne. The QIC's commitment of $100 million will come from funds set aside to meet the government's provision for its share of future liabilities. These funds are already managed by QIC. I stress that: these funds are already managed by QIC for investment. This is another investment opportunity. QIC's other clients will be offered the opportunity to invest in the Queensland 1358 Ministerial Statement 9 May 2002 BioCapital Fund to a maximum of $50 million. The fund's targeted returns of 20 per cent plus had already been achieved by US biotech funds. The fund will have its own staff of bioscientists and investment specialists who will also be able to draw on the global resources of QIC. I am also pleased to detail that the QIC chairman, Trevor Rowe, an experienced investment banker with Salomon Smith Barney, will be taking a close personal interest in the fund. He intends to recruit experts in biotechnology and venture capital to advise the fund. The Queensland BioCapital Fund will focus on the human biosciences, which means investing in pharmaceuticals or equipment used by doctors and hospitals. This announcement provides the ideal Smart State injection. In the community of Australia, with 19 and a half million people, capital for such investments is limited simply because of our size, as it is in other areas such as mining and tourism. This fund provides a major breakthrough for our exciting biotechnology future. It is delivering on the Smart State. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT Terrorism Hon. P. D. BEATTIE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (Premier and Minister for Trade) (9.36 a.m.), by leave: There is not a grain of doubt in my mind that international terrorism is an evil force that must be resisted by peace-loving peoples the world over. After 11 September I do not think there is any doubt in the mind of anyone in Australia that that is a fact. At the Council of Australian Governments' summit on terrorism and transnational crime last month I joined with other state and territory leaders in pledging to work cooperatively with the Commonwealth against terrorism and cross-border crime. All along I have stressed the importance of a collaborative approach between the Commonwealth and the states. I have also highlighted the success of the security effort underpinning the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the Sunshine Coast. There we saw that when Queensland police and other agencies treated protesters with respect and honoured their right to freedom of expression the protesters reciprocated by acting peacefully and lawfully. That meeting demonstrated a joint approach by the Commonwealth and the state authorities. So it is with some concern that I have received briefings on the federal government's proposed anti-terrorism law, the Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill 2002. The federal government is in danger of going over the top with its proposals and may capture innocent people by casting an anti-terrorism dragnet that is simply too wide. The Queensland Police Service has raised concerns about the federal government's proposed definition of terrorism, as have organisations such as the National Council of Churches, Amnesty International, the ACTU and the Law Council of Australia. Yesterday a Senate legislation committee, with a government chair and a majority of government members, unanimously criticised the government's plans. Concerns include the way the bill defines terrorism and the fact that it would establish a regime that could interfere with state law enforcement. I will give two illustrations to the House. First, an individual who hacks into a computer system and posts a protest notice about commercialised globalisation would be committing a 'terrorist act' under the bill, even if the hacker caused no damage. This person would be subject to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. I do not support acts such as that, but is life imprisonment a suitable penalty? I give another example. Murder would be a terrorist act if it were politically, religiously or ideologically driven. However, murder is already covered by the Queensland Criminal Code and already carries a mandatory life sentence. My concern is that successful prosecutions could be jeopardised if we have two parallel systems, and the act of killing could be prosecuted under either. The problem is that, if evidence is obtained under the Commonwealth law and it then emerges that an act was not politically motivated but could be covered by the state's criminal laws, the evidence may not be admissible in a Queensland court. We are also increasingly concerned by the manner in which the Commonwealth is progressing these issues. The Minister for Justice, Chris Ellison, has made several recent announcements about some of the proposed uniform national laws. He did so after addressing a police commissioners conference and has since requested that this government agree to certain measures as soon as possible. 9 May 2002 Ministerial Statement 1359 For example, Senator Ellison has asked the Police Minister to agree to uniform laws to crack down on hand gun trafficking before it is considered at the Australian Police Ministers Council meeting in July. While the Police Minister and I support many of the Commonwealth's proposals, these important policy issues demand detailed consideration by the elected governments, and I urge Canberra to hold an open dialogue with us. This is not an argument about state rights. It is an argument about the rights of Queenslanders and other Australians to express their objections to government policy and actions without being labelled terrorists and threatened with severe penalties. It is about freedom of speech. We want to crack down on terrorists, but we do not want to destroy one of the fundamental planks of this democracy. I hope that the federal government will uphold the importance of balance—and it is about balance—and commonsense as it undertakes the important business of bolstering Australia's antiterrorist capabilities. I say this to the Commonwealth: work with us. We will work with you to defeat terrorism, but we do not want to defeat people's basic rights in the process. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT Capital Works Program; Dairyfarmers Mozzarella Factory Hon. P. D. BEATTIE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (Premier and Minister for Trade) (9.41 a.m.), by leave: This Queensland government's $5 billion Capital Works Program is providing vital community infrastructure for Queensland. The program has a strong regional focus, with approximately 58 per cent of capital expenditure occurring outside the Brisbane area and approximately 46 per cent occurring outside the south-east corner.