Page 1510 - Week 05 - Thursday, 12 May 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
public arena material indicating that the benefits are questionable and that in fact there may be drawbacks. Until the Government presents its document on urban renewal we have little to balance the arguments, and we lack a full explanation of the material which is informing the Government's view.
The Government also refers to Kingston as a success story in urban renewal. This is not necessarily a majority view in the Canberra community, and not necessarily in this Assembly either, I believe, particularly given that Kingstonisation has been added to the Canberra planning lexicon as an indication of what not to do when planning an urban renewal project. Certainly, Aubrey Tow Court has won some acclaim, but I feel that judgments are still to be made on the quality of the environment of North Lyneham. Madam Speaker, the Minister in his speech mentioned the greenhouse strategy, which I have welcomed, and the eco office strategy, which I feel is a very worthwhile and important initiative. The move toward an integrated waste and recycling system for households is also a very positive step.
Madam Speaker, the rest of the Minister's speech focused on the different strategies and national projects the ACT is engaged in, and I congratulate the Government on the breadth of its involvement in regional and national environmental issues. If we move towards 2020 with all of these strategies in place we can indeed be optimistic about Canberra's future as a centre of environmental excellence. As the Minister says, there is always room for improvement. I hope that as we build on the environmental initiatives of the current Assembly we will develop even better ways of reducing the impact we have on our environment. I look forward to seeing more of the Government's agenda coming before the Assembly within the framework of the Commissioner for the Environment's report on the state of the environment. I think all Assembly members are looking forward to seeing that report later this year.
MR WESTENDE (4.43): Madam Speaker, we in the Liberal Party have consulted various members of the community and various business people whose interests lie in the area of the environment. The overwhelming response from those people was that the papers are, to say the least, confusing, and long on rhetoric and short on specifics. This was accompanied by this statement in one case:
How can we "ordinary" members of the public consult with our local MLAs about important issues like this when all the departments use fancy words we don't really use in everyday life?
Perhaps those relevant senior public servants who have the responsibility of writing dissertations such as these might consider trying to make them a bit more user friendly. In this regard the Government may then get responses which are user friendly, and the community at large might then be able to become more environmentally friendly through a sense of understanding and appreciation of the environment. Students also would be able to understand and no doubt would contribute through the education process to the protection of our environment. Paragraph 3 of the summary states that this draft environment strategy "is designed to set the framework for environmental management in the ACT for the next 30 years". The paper then goes on to encourage business and the community to implement the strategy.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .