Page 3855 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the consequences of certain land management practices. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, we must establish new attitudes to land use management. Therefore, in addition to participation in land care, the Government, in consultation with rural landholders, is developing a land tenure policy that will provide more appropriate tenure to encourage sustainable rural and land management practices.
The Government is also continuing to work closely with rural landholders in addressing matters such as stocking rates, retaining vegetation and erosion mitigation. Last month I attended the annual general meeting of the Rural Lessees Association, and I have had meetings with members of that organisation as late as last week. By encouraging the adoption of improved land management practices we can slow the devastation, start to restore already degraded land and ensure the ongoing productivity of as yet unaffected land. (Extension of time granted)
Mr Speaker, there is another fundamental reality that any comprehensive environment policy must recognise: our local environment is only a small part of a much larger regional, national and ultimately global environment. I am pleased to note that the ACT Government is participating in the total catchment management program that is being coordinated within the surrounding shires in New South Wales. This means that, no matter how thoroughly this Government seeks to address local issues, environmentally destructive and ecologically unsuitable practices by other State governments and shires will eventually impact on us. Even actions by other countries will ultimately impact on us, although not as directly as those of our immediate neighbours.
Complacency about wider issues that have no immediate direct effect on us ignores our responsibility not only to this community but to the global community as well. Of course, many of the initiatives taken at a local level will contribute in a small but essential way to the resolution of the same problem on a global scale. I refer to the Government's commitment to seeking to comply with the Montreal protocol in relation to the reduction of CO2. But issues such as the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer will be resolved only by the development of specific policies and actions by governments around the world.
This Government is keeping pace with the greenhouse debate in Australia. It was among the earliest of the States and Territories to begin to develop a strategy to deal with greenhouse climatic change. As the Chief Minister indicated during the debate on the greenhouse consultation paper, there has been a significant response from the community to proposals in the consultation paper, which indicates a high level of community interest and concern about this issue. We in the Government will be closely monitoring developments in the greenhouse debate, both nationally and overseas, to ensure that the ACT remains at the leading edge of greenhouse responses.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .