Page 3859 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
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MR MOORE (4.31): Mr Speaker, I am delighted to have the opportunity in many ways to support the Alliance Government in its attitude, as illustrated by this document "Caring for our Environment - Environment Strategy for the 1990s".
The Alliance Government's commitment to maintaining environmental quality in the ACT comes as a pleasant surprise, and I must say that its approach to the issue is an attempt on a holistic, long-term basis. When a positive document like this comes out I think it is important that it is recognised and that a bipartisan approach is taken on such an important issue so that the matter of the environment loses its place as a controversial issue and becomes one that people recognise as being taken care of by whatever shade of government. Instead of listing some of the very positive points, I think I should just accept that they have been presented very neatly by members of the Government and also in speeches by members of the Labor Party, particularly that made by Ms Follett on 5 June.
A cooperative effort to increase environmental consciousness can only be of benefit to our community. I think a cooperative approach to many more aspects of what we do in the Assembly would also be a major contribution to our community. That sort of cooperative effort would be gained with broad ranging community consultation, as has happened on environmental issues as much as anything because they were one of the major issues of the election. Hence, it was a major part of the platforms of each of the parties that are now represented in the Assembly, with the exception of those who stood under the No Self Government and the Abolish Self Government tickets because they had a specific goal which was recognised by the community.
An individual effort is important and has been recognised throughout the strategy as contributing to the collective effort. This encourages a change of attitude, and I think we can look forward to it being a very positive aspect. That does not mean that everything in the paper can go without criticism, nor can the Government go without criticism in terms of where it stands in acting on some things in terms of the environment. I would like to start my contribution to it by looking at a definition of "environment". The definition that I have chosen comes from the Environment Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act 1974 which states:
... "environment" includes all aspects of the surroundings of man, whether affecting him as an individual or in his social groupings and "environmental" has a corresponding meaning ...
If you were to take that definition and combine it with a reading of page 187 of the Metropolitan Policy Plan 1984, from which I quoted yesterday, it would read as follows: Experience has shown that residential areas of about 4,000 to 5,000 people form a community of interest and provide the necessary threshold for the provision of facilities,
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