A division of the Liberal Party of Australia
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS AWARDS
18 August, 2006
Sign Up for free e-mail updates!
Thanks very much Master of Ceremonies Bob Pleash.
Before announcing the AusIndustry Major Business of the Year award can I congratulate the entrants in this award:
Hastings Deering
John Holland
Capricornia Training Company
and Rydges Capricornia Resort
all of them are significant major businesses in the Central Queensland area. I’m confident all could easily win the award.
I do want to also pay tribute to all of the other entrants in the various award categories and congratulate the winners announced so far.
The Australian Government is very pleased to be a sponsor of one of the awards tonight. And while I fumble with this envelope that’s been handed to me and which contains the name of the winner, can I just remind all the small and medium sized businesses in this room that the Commonwealth Government through its Commercial Ready Program and through its Comet Initiative which supports commercialisation of emerging technologies and also gives advice and financial assistance to plan those commercialisations, has money available to assist businesses in this region. The Australian Government provides over $300 million annually on programs to help innovation in business – and there’s no reason why some of that money shouldn’t be going to Central Queensland businesses.
So if you want to find out more about how you might benefit from the Australian Government’s programs, can I refer you to some AusIndustry people in the audience tonight.
They thought they were here for a good time but really they’re here working and I just want to identify Peter Kidby and Steve Campbell, Deputy State Managers of AusIndustry in Queensland and Stacey Szczerbinski who is the Small Business Field Officer for AusIndustry. In addition to those people there are AusIndustry field officers scattered right throughout Queensland.
Now I know my instructions were to speak for no longer than 35 minutes tonight – but perhaps I got it wrong - it was only 35 seconds – was it?
Well during the time I’ve been able to tell you about what AusIndustry might be able to do for you, I have managed to get this envelope open and it is with great pleasure that I announce that tonight’s winner of the AusIndustry Major Business of the Year Award is John Holland Constructions. Congratulations to John Holland for achieving this significant recognition of their work in Central Queensland.