Page 3319 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
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ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES - GOVERNMENT'S PROGRESS
ON IMPLEMENTATION
Ministerial Statement
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning): Madam Speaker, I ask for leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the Government's progress on implementing environmental initiatives.
Leave granted.
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, in August this year the Chief Minister presented a report to the Assembly regarding the Government's preferred future for the year 2020 titled "Choosing our Future: Canberra in the Year 2020". One of the cornerstones of this future is ecological sustainability. Part of the preferred future described in the document is for Canberra to be planned, developed and managed within ecological principles. The expected outcomes from this are a healthy, vital and sustainable future for all to share, and the maintenance of biological diversity in the ACT and the region. Today I would like to outline some of the initiatives the Government is implementing to achieve this vision for the ACT's environment in the next century.
Throughout the world people have recognised that their future well-being depends on the management of their natural environment in an ecologically sustainable manner. A healthy, natural environment should be a birthright for all, and future generations have a right to the same choices and benefits that we have enjoyed. It is our responsibility as members of the community to manage the environment to achieve this. A responsibility of this magnitude demands a cautious and considered approach. This is embodied in what is known as the precautionary principle, which is an underlying principle of ecologically sustainable development. The precautionary principle advocates the implementation of preventive measures where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, even if there is a lack of scientific certainty as to the causes and effects of this degradation. Essentially this means that our environment is far too precious for us to risk degradation.
An important aspect of the Government's role in this regard is to work cooperatively with the community to minimise the environmental impacts of human activity. In doing so we must protect and enhance our natural and built environments. At the same time, our use of non-renewable resources should be minimised, and waste products and other pollutants managed so that they have negligible environmental impacts. We must also ensure that species diversity is maintained and that ecosystems continue to function naturally. The 2020 report is explicit in its concern for these issues. In describing Canberra's preferred future it states that compatibility with ecological principles is a guiding principle for land management and development, and that biodiversity is maintained in Canberra and the region. Through the Government's actions now, in 1993, we are laying a firm foundation for achieving the vision for the ACT's environment in 2020. This is clearly demonstrated by the range of initiatives being taken by the Government. These are fully described in supplementary budget information paper No. 2, the 1993 environmental budget statement, which was tabled in the Assembly on 14 September.
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