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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 389 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

We now have a situation where this Assembly has called on the Government to initiate a public inquiry. The Minister, as I understand it, could direct the commissioner to take on an inquiry, which would put the commissioner in a position where he has to sort out his available resources and deal with this inquiry. I do not know what the commissioner's view is in relation to his resources or what other issues might be put aside to deal with this one, so on the question of resources I have a reservation. Under this motion there is no requirement, neither can there be, for us to force the Government to allocate more resources. It is an issue that is going to affect the success of the inquiry, it seems to me. I ask the Minister to ensure that the resources question is addressed to enable this inquiry to be pursued. It is an issue that is not dealt with in the motion.

There is another matter which concerns me. For the Assembly to get involved in this issue and to make decisions about it, the first port of call, in my view, would be the Planning and Environment Committee. I have expressed those reservations to the Greens. The Planning and Environment Committee has been left out of the equation. I accept the point of view that was put to me that this is a technical inquiry and technical expertise needs to be involved in the process, but that is not something that the PEC would be unable to deal with. I am not happy that the Planning and Environment Committee has been cut out of the action, so to speak, and I have it in mind at the next meeting to move a motion seeking regular reports during this inquiry. The Assembly, with our support and everybody else's support, will pass the motion before us. I think the Planning and Environment Committee needs to be updated all the way through so that the Assembly's role in this issue can be complete. I am certainly interested in the issue. I suppose there is a bit of self-interest in that. I think it would be a very interesting inquiry. That is why I personally would like to be updated on the issue. I think there is the opportunity to deal with some of the myths and legends which are often spread in relation to weed and pest control. At the same time the serious questions will be dealt with as well.

Mr Speaker, I rise to inform the Assembly that Labor will be supporting this motion. I express some reservations about the process. I think it could have been done another way. I also have concerns about the lack of involvement of the Planning and Environment Committee, which I hope we will be able to address. But overall the inquiry looks as though it will result in a fair assessment of the issues which may affect the ACT on weed and pest control and the use of chemicals. As Mr Humphries has said, it is not something that we have not considered in the past. To have the Commissioner for the Environment look at the matter would be a positive move. In closing, I again express my reservations about how the Commissioner for the Environment might reallocate his resources to deal with the issue and about what else may miss out as a result of it.

MR WOOD (11.54): Mr Speaker, it is a good idea that the Commissioner for the Environment should examine this important issue. Certainly, it is a better idea than having Mr Humphries take it on. Mr Humphries does not have a very good grasp of such matters. I heard him on radio the other day saying that all the weeds we now have in Canberra emerged during my time as Minister; that they all emerged over the last three years. He does not have much of an understanding of the problem. He also has a fairly weak grasp of history. He made those statements when he was releasing a strategy for weed control. He was not gracious enough to indicate that that strategy was formulated at my instigation and funded by the former Government. Mr Humphries is weak on those points.

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