Page 3854 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
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environmental issues will carry on into places like this. I think the community will become much more aware of the need to maintain a sustainable environment and for us to work with that environment to manage it in an appropriate way.
In the area of animal welfare the Government's review is nearing completion. I am advised that the Minister responsible, Mr Duby, will be bringing down a statement on the review this week.
Mr Duby: On Tuesday.
MR JENSEN: I am sorry; on Tuesday. I thought it was coming this week. It is the most comprehensive review of this field which has been undertaken in the ACT. It has taken quite a long time, and I think there has been a lot of community consultation and input. This policy statement will, in turn, be used as the basis for developing legislation for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
It is unfortunate that in recent times we have had some very horrific instances of cruelty to animals, in particular our native animals, within the ACT. I would suggest that any people who think they will not feel the full force of the ACT law on them if they are caught perpetrating any of these acts had better think again. I can assure you, Mr Speaker, that my colleagues within government will come down like the proverbial ton of bricks on anybody who is seen perpetrating such acts. If people see these sorts of acts or hear of them, I would encourage them to report them to the appropriate authorities so that they can be promptly and efficiently investigated. The legislation that will flow from this will set up the principal framework for animal protection in the ACT.
As the Chief Minister has already indicated, soil conservation is possibly the major environmental issue in Australia and one that no government can ignore. Soil loss and land degradation are problems that have increased enormously over the last century. We can only hope to deal with them through long-term action. Any of you who have considered some of the problems of the Murrumbidgee valley in recent years, particularly in relation to salinity, will know exactly what I mean. I think the days of, as it is affectionately called, Gillette farming, by which attempts were made to turn the environment into a European-style one, are long gone. I think farmers are now appreciating the importance of and the need for tree cover on their farms.
We have therefore committed $125,000 per annum for the next 10 years to a program of remedial works for areas such as the upper Hall, Ginninderra and Sullivans Creek catchments and the Murrumbidgee tributaries. However, the Government recognises that remedial works are only one aspect of measures that need to be taken to combat soil degradation. This degradation has been caused by a failure to foresee
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