Page 4493 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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are quite succinct. I consider that they are, for the most part, goals against which progress can be measured. It is very important that they be used in that way. I find many of the goals quite inspiring, and I believe that many people in the community will find them equally inspiring.
Madam Speaker, if you look at some of those goals - for instance, the goals for employment - I believe that they set a basis for the kind of community that we want to see in Canberra. In employment, for instance, one goal is:
To develop workplaces characterised by a spirit of cooperation and to expand the diversity of employment opportunities to ensure all members of the community have productive employment if they wish.
That goal, I think, encompasses a great deal. It encompasses the fact that employment must be the highest priority for government and must remain that way, because in my view it is a basic social justice objective that people be able to have fulfilling work if that is their wish. It seems to me that the best thing you can do for people, if you have a social justice agenda, is to ensure that they have that choice of fulfilling work.
Madam Speaker, the goal also says a great deal about what workplaces will be like. No longer will they be places of exploitation or of warfare between bosses and workers; rather, as the report says, they will be characterised by a spirit of cooperation. I think that is an objective that is shared not only within the public sector but also by many private sector operators. I believe that it is an objective that ought to be widespread throughout our community because it recognises the full dignity of people at work, their rights to have a say in the way that they do their work and their rights to have a share in the achievements of the body for which they work.
Madam Speaker, there are other goals throughout the report, but the ones that appeal to me the most are those that relate to Canberra's environment. There is a goal to preserve Canberra's close association with its landscape. That is a goal which I do not believe anybody could take exception to; but, of course, in the light of our rapidly increasing population, we know that there is great stress on the bush capital characteristics of Canberra, so it is very important that we establish as a goal the protection of that bush capital status and that we also ensure that people living in Canberra do not become isolated in concrete jungles but that, as residents of this community, they still have a close relationship with the natural environment.
A further goal is to pass on to future residents of Canberra significant areas of viable natural ecosystems. What that means to me is that we must not just protect those natural ecosystems from being developed all over but protect their integrity as well - a very difficult task in view of our rapid expansion.
Debate interrupted.
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