Page 418 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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Madam Speaker, it is with some pride that I table this report, which I believe will add to the environment of Canberra. It will help ensure that people in Canberra continue to live in the bush capital and that it will be a bush capital that we can be proud of. I would like to take this opportunity to thank other members of the committee, who worked hard, who had some meetings at rather unusual times and who, I believe, were particularly prepared, as is often the case in our committees, to make compromises, to listen to each other and to come up with a report that I think we can be proud of. I am certainly proud of it. Madam Speaker, I would also like to draw the Assembly's attention to the work done by the committee secretary, Mr Bill Symington, who as always has been outstanding in his efforts to ensure the smooth operation of the committee and the presentation of this report to the Assembly at this time.
MS ELLIS (3.57): Madam Speaker, at the tabling of this report there are a few points worth noting. As the chairman of the committee, Mr Moore, has said, this has been an extremely interesting and extremely challenging topic of great current interest, given our community's increasing awareness of environmental matters. In this case the issue is close to us rather than distant from us. As can be seen in the report, large numbers of people and organisations lodged submissions to the inquiry, appeared at public hearings and replied in writing to the earlier published discussion paper. I believe that the discussion paper process was an incredibly useful tool initiated by the chair of the committee. It opens up the potential for such a tool to be used again should the topic warrant it.
The discussions held with various people were at times fairly controversial. Questions such as those addressed in this report almost have to be controversial if we are to come to some decision and consensus. During our inquiry we had the opportunity to visit the Sherbrooke Shire in Victoria. The Sherbrooke Shire, as some members may be aware, is located in the Dandenong mountains. It is a forested tourist area. In a lot of ways it is not all that different from the ACT, given the proximity of national park and general park areas to urban areas. That is something that we understand very well because Namadgi National Park constitutes in excess of 50 per cent of the ACT, and we have very accessible park areas woven throughout our urban environment; hence the high level of interest in an inquiry such as this.
In passing, I pay tribute to the Parkcare groups that we came across during our inquiry. The work they do to combat invasive plants in our nature park areas is an enormous contribution to our amenity in this Territory. I do not think we could praise enough the volunteer work of these groups.
When we speak of feral animals and invasive plants, it could be very easy to assume that all we are really talking about is cats and pampas grass, but nothing could be further from the truth. I suggest very strongly that people need to read this report with an inquiring mind - rather than a closed one - and be ready for a learning process. We on the committee have only just begun that process ourselves. This whole topic gives plenty of room to develop an interest in, and a knowledge of, things beyond the apparent.
The recommendations are important and deserve careful consideration. Amongst the recommendations referred to by the chair of the committee is the controversial recommendation concerning cats. I would like to dwell on that for a moment. The comments outlined in this recommendation are
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