Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you live in regional Australia and you rely on rainwater then you know firsthand the annual pilgrimage that you will make up a ladder to clean the gutters out. My electorate is going to fix that. Eaves Water System, an innovative guttering business in my electorate, is going commercial after they secured more than half a million dollars from the Entrepreneurs' Program. Eaves Water System was established in a backyard shed at Witheren about three years ago by a local builder, Alan Haley, after he saw some of the shortcomings in the industry.

The product is designed so that people do not need to climb and clean their gutters. It is a lifesaving measure, because we lose 500 people a year from people falling off ladders when they are cleaning their houses. It is a highly innovative product, and it gives me great pleasure to see the entrepreneurs in my electorate being rewarded for their efforts. I visited Alan and his partner, Bill Horton, and their team the other day at their factory where I personally congratulated them. They told me that the commercialisation grant will go a long way to developing their product. With the $613,250 that they have secured through the Entrepreneurs' Program they will be able to take the product to the next level, nationally and abroad.

I commend the boys at the Eaves Water System. I can assure you that the patents that they have in place—if you can imagine a normal piece of guttering, it has something like a roof over the top that still captures the water and the leaves goes straight off, making it heaven.