Page 3721 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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I happily commend this paper to the Assembly. I think it is worthy of consideration. It is only with feedback from the community that the committee can reconsider the situation in the light of that feedback and come up with a report that makes concrete recommendations towards achieving what I think all of us in the community would wish to achieve in this field.
MR WESTENDE (11.52): Madam Speaker, I shall be brief. Most of what needs to be said has been said. I would like to support our chair, Mr Moore, and Ms Ellis in their comments on the discussion paper. However, it should be emphasised that this is not a final report but a discussion paper, and the comments in the paper ought to be taken in that context. We have already received some comments from various organisations and members of the public, and it would appear from those comments that quite a few are under the misapprehension that it is a report and not a discussion paper. I trust that through this Assembly we can convey to these organisations and members of the public that the final report might be quite different. It will take into consideration the concerns that some of them have expressed.
I believe that some of the recommendations and highlights of the discussion paper need further enforcement. For example, what is the use of encouraging citizens to rip out their cotoneasters and hawthorns when others are flourishing, often under the department's supervision, across the road or on the median strip? As recently as last Sunday I saw cotoneasters for sale in a nursery in Pialligo. Although I believe that the report is a conscious effort by our committee to educate the community about the danger of feral plants and animals within the Territory, I am somewhat dismayed to see nurseries still selling some of those plants. The plants are mentioned in the discussion paper and also in leaflets that are issued by the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning, and they are classified as invasive. Just as the department has strengthened its Dog Control Act by increasing the number of inspectors, inter alia, it is this type of measure that will assist in the control of feral animals, be they dogs, cats or whatever.
I urge all members of the Assembly to take time out to read the discussion paper and perhaps provide us with further input and comments for inclusion in our final report. In that way, I am sure that we can all make the ACT a better place in which to live. I commend the report to the Assembly.
MR MOORE (11.55), in reply: Madam Speaker, in closing the debate, I welcome the comments from other committee members. I am sure that, when the final report is brought down, other members of the Assembly will be interested in commenting on it. We have already received some positive comments from members of the public. One of them, from the Council on the Ageing, has to do with elderly people being attacked by cats, which is a quite interesting phenomenon.
Mr Connolly: There are a few cats following you around in Reid, Michael.
MR MOORE: I see a smile on Terry Connolly's face. We can all see the funny side of this, but it is a serious issue for people who have some worries about it. I must say that I have not experienced it myself, but it will be interesting to see, as more submissions on the discussion paper come in, just where the committee should go with it.
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