Mr BARRY JONES —by leave—I thought the indication was that there would be time this afternoon; I have only two minutes now. However, I take up the point made by the honourable member for Isaacs (Mr Atkinson). Curiously, comparatively little was raised on those technological issues in the actual submissions. To some degree we are limited by that. Of course, it is the sort of issue that we ought to be talking about in the Long Term Strategies Committee generally. I accept that view completely.

  Nevertheless, I think it is also fair to say that the primary emphasis of the report was not on providing an additional quantum of money. If the networking is right and we spend $X on facilitating networking, then it may not be necessary to spend $2Xm or $3Xm on book stock. Perhaps again that is an area where, if we had had a longer period for discussion within the Committee itself, that could have been developed. As I mentioned earlier, there is a higher degree of political consensus on this issue. The honourable member for Bennelong (Mr Howard) played a significant role historically in this matter. We all accept that the Commonwealth cannot be regarded as a milch cow from which we just squeeze out the nutrients that other people use. We have to be able to use our existing resources more effectively; hence the emphasis on networking rather than simply increasing the quantum.

  However, I am also concerned that, although we have this extraordinarily rich facility, the extraordinarily rich facility is not being used effectively. Somehow it has to be put much higher in the thinking of government; it has to be very high on the national priorities. The Minister for the Arts, Tourism and Territories (Mr Simmons), who is at the table, and the Minister for the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories (Mrs Kelly), as the senior Minister in the Department, have a very important role to play—but not in isolation. As we said in the earlier report, we have this extraordinary fragmentation in the area. The Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce has a different view of what an `information' means, as do all the other departments. We need to bring them together.

  Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Les Scott) —Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired and the debate is adjourned. The resumption of debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting Thursday. The honourable member will have leave to continue his speech when the debate is resumed.