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The ACT Government would always, under every circumstance, retain control over Namadgi National Park - always, under all circumstances. The fact that somebody else actually manages that park for you does not imply that you are giving away that park to somebody else. That is really a quite false suggestion. It raises the question of what happens to all the other services the ACT Government owns but which are run or managed by somebody else. The Government does not provide directly through public servants all the services it offers to the people of the ACT. Other people offer those services as well on contract bases. Thousands of workers in the health system do that, as do workers in the education system. Lots of people do that. We do not necessarily provide all these services through public servants.

Mr Speaker, Namadgi National Park is a very important asset of the people of the ACT. It covers almost half of the ACT - some 45 per cent of the Territory, in fact. It consists of 105,900 hectares. It is the largest area of natural bushland vegetation in the ACT. It provides the major water catchment for the Territory's water supply. It is an important extension of the network of alpine national parks that go all the way from New South Wales down to Victoria, and it is an area of great peace, tranquillity and enjoyment for the people of Canberra. None of those things will change under any foreseeable plan of this Government.

Mr Speaker, my pleasure in discussing the importance and value of Canberra's sole national park is offset only by the need to mention once again the appalling legacy which the previous Government left us as a result of their fiscal irresponsibility, financial mismanagement and positive squeamishness in addressing the important financial management decisions facing the ACT. Mr Speaker, it might not be known to all members here that, in fact, it was the Alliance Government back in 1990 which actually took the decision to increase Namadgi National Park by 10,000 hectares - over 10 per cent of its then size - to the present 105,900 hectares. A park that we are supposed to want to give away we actually were seen to be adding to.

Mr Moore: I said that you made a good decision.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed. The important thing, though, is that after we made that decision the incoming Labor Government in 1991 did not allocate additional resources to manage the area of that park to account for its enlarged size. So, we had a larger park which got no more resources to manage that extra area. That, I think, was wrong. This Government wants to look at all the options for making the provision of those services better and more efficiently costed, and that involves a process of examining options.

Huge levels of public debt were incurred by the previous Government, and we have to be imaginative and creative in the ways we deal with that large level of debt. One idea we have explored is to review the management arrangements for Namadgi National Park to see whether management by the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service or some other public or private agency could reduce costs, increase revenue or offer better

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