Page 2284 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 1 November 1989
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diseases on the project. In this respect the lessee is to provide a $50,000 bank guarantee against which the Territory may claim in the event the lessee does not take remedial action as specified to control disease. If properly applied, these controls and others contained in legislation and the terms of the lease will provide significant protection against the spread of disease.
The question of whether fish or fish eggs or organisms could escape into the surrounding waterways was also explored by the committee.
After visiting the site and inspecting the drainage and sewerage diagrams, the committee was satisfied that the filtering system, the ozonisation of aquarium water before discharge and other safeguards applying to the project would ensure that no fish eggs or fish diseases could escape into the river system. The project's salt-water ponds and aquariums are part of a closed system and cannot produce harm to the surrounding environment. The freshwater system is not closed but is subject to a process of internal recycling and purification and further processing before being released into the sewerage system.
The committee was further satisfied that, even if fish were allowed to escape into the Molonglo River or Lake Burley Griffin, environmental damage would be unlikely to occur. The committee found that salt-water species would be unable to survive in freshwater because of their need for a high level of body salt and that tropical species need a higher water temperature than prevails in our local river systems.
There was, however, some paucity of evidence on the question of whether freshwater species from Northern Australian riverways might cause damage if allowed to escape. Evidence was presented to the committee that they would probably die because such fish are not adapted to the region and are used to warmer waters. Because of that element of doubt, albeit slight, the committee has recommended in the report that the Minister with responsibility for the environment in the ACT provide the conservator under the Nature Conservation Act with the necessary resources for him or her to determine the impact on the region of those freshwater species before a licence to import them is issued. The committee also recommends that the result of that assessment be conveyed by the Minister to the Assembly.
Mr Speaker, the foregoing comments should not be read as saying that the committee believes that community concerns about a general lack of consultation on the question of the whole project are unfounded. In this respect we felt that experience might lead us to view favourably other ways of proceeding with a site and project of this kind. The committee has recommended that the Government review the past policy of directly negotiating the sale of sites for one-off tourist attractions with developers. It also recommends that, before any change to the lease purpose
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