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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 1962 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

The Namadgi plan does not even cover the additional 25,000 hectares by which the park has grown over recent years. Tidbinbilla does not even have a draft management plan yet, even though it has been highlighted in the report as an area that could be suitable for tourism development.

These management plans must be completed before any consideration is given to expanding tourist activities in these reserves. It is only through finalising these management plans that the ecological integrity of the nature reserves can be assessed and steps put in place to maintain this integrity. It is only after this work is completed that recommendation 8 should be implemented, which is that a strategic plan for the development of nature-based tourism in the ACT national parks should be prepared, together with recommendation 14, which is that an assessment be made of the Territory's natural areas, including carrying capacities and market demand, to determine which sites should be targeted or could be targeted for increased visitation.

These initial recommendations must be implemented first, before further consideration can be given to most of the other recommendations relating to the development of specific tourism initiatives. Without an overall management structure for our nature reserves in which nature-based tourism activities can be planned, the ACT stands the risk of degrading the natural features of the ACT on which this type of tourism depends.

Another specific recommendation that I would like to comment on is recommendation 15, which is about the locations of accommodation venues for nature-based tourist activities. The report states that such venues should be restricted to the periphery of the Territory's national parks, but that other developments may be appropriate under specific circumstances. Let me be clear that the Greens do not support the building of hotels, motels, resorts, conference centres or any other tourist accommodation of this scale within the ACT nature reserves. I do not understand why Mr Humphries is laughing at this. It is a quite serious issue.

Mr Humphries: I am laughing at something Mr Osborne said, not what you said.

MS HORODNY: You should be paying attention, Mr Humphries. This is something that you need to deal with. There are so many examples in Australia and overseas of inappropriate tourist developments that have been allowed to dominate and degrade what were once unique natural environments, for the sake of making a short-term profit. Even the development of such resorts on the boundary of nature reserves can have a detrimental impact through increases in visitor numbers and the often visually dominating character of these types of developments.

Another major issue raised by this report is the introduction of user charges, as stated in recommendation 19. The Greens do not support the introduction of entry fees to Namadgi and Tidbinbilla or any other nature reserves in the ACT. While entry fees may be appropriate for some national parks which have high visitor rates and high management costs, we do not believe that there are sufficient grounds for imposing user fees in the ACT.

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