Page 1748 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 17 October 1989
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I have asked to be kept informed of the progress of a proposed pilot program between the Commonwealth and South Australia to devise and implement an integrated heritage listing process.
It is my hope and the hope of my party, Mr Speaker, that we can develop in the ACT a sensible system which balances the needs of good planning, in which our Territory has a unique inheritance, of heritage and of environmental considerations. I am confident that the approach to which the Government has alluded is at least the beginnings of the right one, and I hope that it can be developed in a correct fashion to a sensible policy. My party will be watching that with interest and ensuring that it reaches the desired effect - that is, a well integrated, easily understood, properly appealable system incorporating all those features for the ACT.
MR JENSEN (4.21): I think it is appropriate to mention once again that this matter has been on the notice paper for some time. My colleague Mr Humphries has already referred to that. I support his comments in relation to the need to work out some way by which these matters can be brought on promptly and efficiently as part of business. Generally, members do not have a great deal to say about a particular paper or statement that the Minister has to make, and it is probably appropriate that these sorts of discussions be brought on as quickly as possible. I understand that the Government has taken this matter on notice, following some discussions we had with it before the last sitting.
But, Mr Speaker, before I comment on some of the planning matters which arise from the paper, I think it is pertinent to note that the people of the ACT are now being represented at such conferences at last - I mean fully and properly represented. Many issues important to the future of the ACT are discussed at such gatherings, and it has been obvious for many years that the interests of the ACT have not been properly represented, particularly as only one or maybe two Ministers have sought to represent the petitions of the ACT people in those forums, often with some major loss in interest for the people of the ACT.
However, I would suggest that self-government has now changed this. It is one of the benefits that was identified by the task force report on self-government or the Craig report, as it has come to be known, in 1984. On page 33 it says that the terms "Chief Minister" and "Minister" were appropriate to ensure that we have representation at ministerial level at these sorts of forums. I think it is important to recognise that, and I am sure that not only members of this Assembly but also the people of the ACT will look with interest at the future representation by our Ministers, whoever they may be, at these various forums.
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