There isn’t much patronage to be exerted from the opposition benches in a period of majority Government. Just about the only thing you can do is put out a media release and hope someone in the media bites. That’s one reason why I was loathe to touch Jacqui Burke’s latest effort on wanting more “Support” for the local hemp industry.
Jacqui acknowledges that there are no legislative hurdles remaining to growing industrial (non-smokeable) hemp in the ACT. Now she want’s hand-outs. I should note I don’t know if Jacqui has any connections to “a Canberra based marketing company, merged with other interested parties to form a new Australian company called Golden Green Pty Ltd” it is always possible she’s just really stupid.
So stupid as to think bringing a major new industry (assuming the unlikely best case scenario of giving money to this marketing company) would solve and not exacerbate problems such as skills shortages and a lack of affordable and suitable housing. I’m not saying this is reason to discourage industry, but lets not kid ourselves that a blue sky industry is actually going to solve our problems for us.
I maintain that it is better to create an environment conducive to all business and let real business people determine for themselves how they will allocate capital, rather than try to “pick winners”. So called “picking winners” rewards the politically well connected business, not the effective or efficient.
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