Page 3983 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 16 December 1992
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This Government is addressing issues of flexibility and improvement with ACTION. I indicated only the other day, in response to a question without notice from one of my Labor colleagues, that we are, for example, doing a study within ACTION on national best practice. Mr Westende would be aware that a current management strategy in the private sector in Australia is to look at national and international best practice, acknowledging that we are now in a competitive environment. That is the sort of thing that we are doing within ACTION - looking at best practice in workplace reform to ensure that we can take the ACTION network into the future and continue to reduce that deficit. This Government has set itself a very public target of achieving some $10m reduction in the real cost of ACTION to the community over the next three years. They will be the three years of this administration. We achieved some $2m in the last budget. In fact, later on today I will be tabling something which clarifies that. I think it is $1.93m, and our target was $2m, so we are just about there. I am confident that we will continue to do that over coming years.
Feral Cats
MS ELLIS: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. I refer to a recent television program about the problem of feral cats, and also to a feral animal information kit that I recently received from the place on the hill, which, amongst other things, mentions feral cats. I ask the Minister: Does the Government acknowledge that this is a problem in the ACT, and, if so, what is being done about it?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I think it is probably fair to say that there is a problem with feral cats in the ACT, as elsewhere, but the extent of that problem is not easily assessed. I guess that it is the nature of cats that they can be killers. That does not have to be the case if they are well cared for by their owners, but unfortunately that does not occur in every case. Studies in other States indicate that lizards and birds do form a part of the diet of feral animals. There is the likelihood of a problem in the ACT, but we do not know. It is a complex question. The question of the control of cats is a difficult one. It has been presented to me as Minister from time to time.
Before we come to grips in any detail with cat control, I think we ought to be well aware of the extent of the problem, if any. For that reason my department is funding a study of the feeding habits of cats living in the fringe area of the city, in the hills and forests adjacent to the city. We have provided $17,000 in this financial year for that study. That will give us a starting point in considering what action may be necessary. For the first time in the ACT it will give us some definite data. It may be appropriate that one of the committees you work on - I think Mr Moore's environment committee - take on this matter if they see it as one of some importance.
RSL Retirement Village
MS SZUTY: My question is also to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning, Mr Wood. Can the Minister inform the Assembly as to the progress of current negotiations with the Returned and Services League of Australia, ACT Branch, regarding construction of a retired persons housing development on the shores of Lake Ginninderra? Have any alternative sites been discussed with the developer?
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