Page 4706 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR COLLAERY (5.15): Mr Speaker, I agree completely with what Mr Wood said. Part IV is headed "Environmental Assessments and Inquiries". There is reference elsewhere in the Bill, at page 52, to the "Environment Minister" - that is, Mr Wood, as he will be with his new title. It states:
"Environment Minister" means the Minister administering this Part;
I can recall lots of discussions, as can Mr Kaine, about how we would name this legislation. There were preferences expressed by Parliamentary Counsel, by the Law Office, by different members of the Government and so on, and I think it does hang in the balance.
My view is that, given the atmosphere and culture from which we come, which has not been the best management of our Territory's leasehold system, we should give that signal to the population, at least at this stage, because this Bill is not immutable, and use the term "Environment". I must say that I am quite surprised, and I am not making a personal attack, that Mr Moore would want to put "Management" in when that dreaded word was the sort of culture over which we all joined together originally and opposed.
I am not diminishing in any way the concept that the custodian of this Bill, that is, the Minister, has the environment in his or her stewardship and that management, with the inference of money and gain, is not the primary consideration of this Bill. Of course, Mr Wood's title is Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. It seems wholly correct that the little crown we will bestow on him - not too soon, of course - will reflect the major part of his ministerial responsibility.
Mr Speaker, if you turn to Part V, at page 71, it is headed "Land Administration". You only get the term "management" when you get to clause 193, which says, "An area of public land shall be managed in accordance with the management objectives", et cetera.
I would think that, on balance, the emphasis in the Bill is more on the environment, more on the bush capital nature from where we come and more on the Territory Plan, than on the managerial aspects of the leases. It may well be that a future government may separate land administration and leases out into a separate Bill. There was considerable debate about that, although I agreed with Mr Kaine that we should get a compendium at this stage. In due course, if this legislation is passed, no doubt some industrious legal publisher will produce a loose leaf, annotated Land, (Planning and Environment) Act.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .