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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 8 Hansard (24 October) . . Page.. 1969 ..

Mr Wood: A political body.

MR HUMPHRIES: The Conservation Council is a political body, is it?

Mr Wood: Absolutely.

MR HUMPHRIES: The Conservation Council is. That is an interesting comment. I will bear that in mind. I accept that advice. The council said that the ACT rating was a "very qualified pass mark", and it reflected the neglect of our key threatened ecosystems. Mr Darlington went on to say:

Ex-Environment Minister Bill Wood was put on notice by last year's Report Card and failed to take up the challenge. His government's inaction on protection of grassland and woodland ecosystems is directly responsible for the ACT's poor marks in this year's Report Card.

He went on to talk about the lack of grasslands and woodlands, the ex-Labor Government's delay in setting up science-based criteria for selection of protected areas, and the inadequate resources to properly manage the current reserve areas in the ACT. It looks like I am not the only one who is in trouble for not giving resources to certain areas, Mr Wood. Mr Darlington also mentioned increasing threats to natural areas from invasive weeds and feral animals - we have put a weeds strategy in place - and lack of involvement of indigenous people in the direct management of protected areas. Mr Speaker, if I were the former Government I would not be talking much about our performance in respect of the environment.

Mr Wood and others may have neglected to note a number of important initiatives in the ACT with respect to the environment, and I want to touch on some of those, just very briefly. Members will recall that in this budget, which was so recently slated, we have set aside something in the order of 500 hectares of land around Gungahlin for the preservation of the habitat of Delma impar, the legless lizard. Mr Speaker, my Government is very proud to have made that decision.

Mr Wood: That has been a long process.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Wood suggests that it was the result of a long process. That is simply not the case. Recommendations that I saw referred to protection of certain areas of the ACT which were identified existing habitats of the legless lizard. Those habitats constituted about 100 hectares of land. The Government has not protected just those 100 hectares as recommended to us; we have protected 500 hectares of grasslands for regeneration of our native grassland species of both plants and animals in Gungahlin. That is a significant contribution towards the preservation of endangered species whose habitats those grasslands are.

We have put in place for the first time the beginnings of work on a weeds strategy for the Territory. Mr Wood himself was criticised by the World Wide Fund and by the Conservation Council for failure to act in the area of a weeds strategy, and that is a very clear indication that we need to be acting in this area to provide for a consistent and

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