Page 438 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 June 1989
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this Bill be adjourned to a date other than tonight so that we can consider the level of those penalties.
MR MOORE (8.13): These amendments to the Nature Conservation Act 1980, as my colleague Mr Humphries has said, are a result of an agreement between the Commonwealth and the People's Republic of China, reflecting China's warm attitude to the protection of migratory birds. I would like to endorse Mr Humphries' statement; we in the Residents Rally also wish it had exactly the same attitude to people.
The threatening of wildlife is rarely a direct threat, but the vast majority of the wildlife threat in Australia has been to the ecosystem. This amendment Bill deals with animals, plants, live fish, vertebrates and so on. What we see in this amendment Bill is a protection not only of those animals but also of the whole ecosystem. It is a warming thought that conservationists and their ideas about protection of the whole ecosystem have actually got through into the legislation form.
It is that ecosystem that we are trying to protect as well, and to protect it in conjunction with the protection of the migratory birds and the agreement with the People's Republic of China. I draw your attention to the explanatory memorandum to the Nature Conservation (Amendment) Bill. It states:
Wildlife in the Territory will be protected by a dual regulatory system. The Bill will amend the Act by providing that certain species of wildlife that are the subject of an Act of the Commonwealth, or of any convention, agreement or treaty entered into by the Commonwealth or are vulnerable or threatened with extinction may be given special protection status.
Now that has become the responsibility of people in the ACT. It is that special protection of wildlife that this amendment Bill seeks to carry out and, we believe, seeks to do it quite successfully. The conservator who is appointed under the Bill is given special control, special powers, to ensure that those species are appropriately protected, and protected in the whole sense of their environment, in their full environment.
For those people who find some difficulty with the powers of the conservator, I think it is important to note that this Assembly will have the final say. The declarations of the conservator on protected species will be subject to scrutiny by this Assembly. I think that is quite appropriate as part and parcel of this Assembly's requirements in looking after not only the people of Canberra but also the appropriate species of plants, animals, fish and so forth that live in our surrounding areas.
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