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and integrated programs, as advocated in recommendations 6, 7, 21 and 22, is specifically articulated in the Government's policy platform. Also consistent with the approach of community involvement is the adoption of best management practices for rural lands, as advocated in recommendation 3, which the Government supports wholeheartedly.

The Government recognises the need for the effective coordination of ACT and regional initiatives, particularly in terms of promoting integrated catchment management for the protection of water quality and natural resources. To this end, the Government supports the strengthening of regional links consistent with recommendations 8 and 32. The Government's commitment to regional cooperation in environmental management is also reflected in its undertaking to seek to bring the ACT into full membership of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. The Government has recognised the importance of air quality monitoring, particularly for small particulate matter, in our policy platform. As such, we support separate monitoring for small particulates, in line with recommendation 14.

As members are aware, work is also proceeding on a weather station in Tuggeranong Valley to complement air quality monitoring undertaken there. This responds directly to recommendation 11 of the report. The need to assess the qualitative impact of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as stated in recommendation 12, is seen by the Government as an important aspect of the ACT's future greenhouse response effort. Recommendation 28 - that a program be developed to investigate fire management and impacts in the ACT - is fully supported by the Government. Members will recall that in our policy platform we undertook to ensure that bushfire prevention is carried out according to the best available scientific advice. 

Mr Berry: After you were goaded into action.

MR HUMPHRIES: The interjection is so bizarre as to be almost not worth commenting on. Mr Berry obviously forgot that his own colleague Mr Wood sat on the bushfire report commissioned from Mr McBeth for five months - he almost literally sat on it for five months - with no action on it. This Government has provided the action necessary to achieve that.

Mr Berry: Those people sitting out there with respiratory complaints and asthma were suffering until we goaded you into action.

MR HUMPHRIES: Dear, oh dear; talk about rewriting history. George Orwell lives! The task force I set up to address this issue within seven days of taking office as Minister for the Environment has now reported. There are a number of other matters raised by the commissioner which the Government has addressed in its policy platform and sees as particularly important for the long-term protection of the environment - for instance, controls over trade waste; the improvement of the management of hazardous waste residues; and the development of a native vegetation strategy and plant and animal pest species categories.

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