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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 2924 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

The Committee recommends that as a general rule the ACT Government restrict the development of formal accommodation venues to the periphery of the Territory's national parks -

that is beyond the border -

however, that it consider developments which may be appropriate under specific circumstances. Any such proposal for development must be considered through an extensive community and government consultation process.

I think that is consistent with the point I raised a moment ago.

Finally, I want to indicate that one of the strongest messages we got was that we must keep ahead of tourism moves - of what may happen and where people may want to go. We saw evidence that it is very difficult to catch up with the tourism throngs. I believe we are ahead at this stage but we need to develop management plans for Namadgi, for the Canberra Nature Park and for tourism management, so that we stay ahead of such tourists who may come.

MR OSBORNE (5.23): Mr Speaker, I will be very brief. I would like to reiterate what my fellow committee members have said here today. I would like to say how much I enjoyed working with two veterans, Mr Wood and Mr Kaine, the way that I did on the committee. From a young person's perspective, it was quite an experience to work with the two elder statesmen of this Assembly.

Mr Speaker, I would like to reinforce what Mr Wood said. I was fortunate enough whilst on the committee to see a number of places that I had never dreamt existed here in the ACT. Prior to taking these trips there were many times when I had been at home with my wife on a weekend and we could think of nothing to do. I am pleased to say that, after the work we did on this report, I do not think that will ever be a problem.

I would like to stress that I think it is important that we allow Namadgi to be opened up. When I say "opened up", I mean that people across the community should be made aware of the beauty out there, but it is important that we take care of what we have. The last thing I want to see is for it to become too commercialised; to see what we treasure slowly destroyed.

We were fortunate enough to have input from many people. The Ngunnawal people were very interesting. They questioned my blood lines. They questioned my origins, claiming I was one of the brothers. I disputed that, but they seem to have some inside knowledge on that. I think it is very important, Mr Speaker, that we appreciate these people's concerns and that we allow them to have a greater impact on some issues when it comes to tourism in the ACT. One thing they spoke about was that they would like to see some Aboriginal people conduct tours of Aboriginal sites around the ACT. I think that would be a great boost for them. As I said, Mr Speaker, I did enjoy working on this committee. I was disappointed that I missed out on some of the trips, but I believe that our next reference is on the Olympics and tourism for the ACT, so I am looking forward to making a trip to Atlanta next year.

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