Page 1209 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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of a well-planned city. Canberra's recent planning and history are also valuable in the way that they have engendered community interest and involvement in our city's planning and heritage. I would suggest that this is one of the cities of Australia - indeed of the world - where an interest in heritage and the past is very important to the community.
We have put legislation on the table - not drafting instructions but legislation - to enable the people to see its proper form and enable them to comment. It is unfortunate that we do not have operating right here and now the sort of legislation that is required. I would suggest that, if the group opposite had got their act together, the sorts of protections that Mrs Grassby was talking about would already have been in place.
Mrs Grassby: Yes, it would have been done if you had not grabbed power.
MR JENSEN: No, Mrs Grassby. We were still waiting and we would have been waiting for time immemorial. Members opposite were not prepared to make the hard decisions during this period. As the Chief Minister said, our legislation will provide a process which the community can use to conserve these places and objects which we value. Mrs Grassby spoke about the fact that we should be leaders in the area of the protection of Aboriginal heritage.
Mrs Grassby: You should consult before you make up your minds about things.
MR JENSEN: We are consulting, but we have put the legislation on this table as part of that consultation process.
Mrs Grassby: You never talk to the people who are important.
MR JENSEN: That is interesting, Mr Speaker. My advice is that members of the department did speak to those people and have continued to have dialogue with them. So it is all very well for Mrs Grassby to come across and talk about those sorts of areas.
The proposed heritage legislation that we have put forward makes provision for a heritage objects register and we will be the first State or Territory to legislate for such a register for non-Aboriginal artefacts.
I think it is important that the involvement of the community in such groups as the National Trust, the National Parks Association, the various local area residents groups and the conservation and environment movement attests to the level of community concern about conservation of our local heritage. I noted that there were no Labor members present on Sunday at a tree-planting activity run by Greening of Australia.
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