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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 1966 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Ms Horodny also raised the question of entry fees into Namadgi National Park and Tidbinbilla. The Government has indicated that it is considering the question of how to produce more revenue in this area. We are doing so because we are confronted with a report commissioned by the previous Labor Government on the question of entry fees. We intend not to waste what, obviously, the previous Government saw as an opportunity to examine what can be done in that area by simply discarding that report without further consideration.

Ms Horodny said that it will be very difficult to charge entry fees for Namadgi National Park, and she is absolutely right. There are, I think, 19 entry points to Namadgi National Park. It would be almost impossible and quite uneconomic to post some kind of entry boxes at the entry points to the park. Tidbinbilla is another matter. I again appeal to the Greens not to say, as Ms Horodny suggested, that it is only where you have a high overhead that you have to meet that you should be charging entry fees. That is a purely reactive approach to the question of what to do in our national parks and our nature reserves.

There is the question of how we actually invest in those areas to upgrade the quality of what we are doing of an educational nature in those places. This Government, for one, stands committed to attempting to use resources that become available, whether they are through the Government coming upon extra pots of money, which is very unlikely, or through the charging of entry fees, to upgrade the quality of what we are able to do in those places.

To give you an example of that, the Commonwealth, before the last election, committed itself towards establishing an educational facility at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. That is a commitment from the Commonwealth Government that I greatly welcome and look forward to being able to help develop into a feasible facility for both residents of the ACT and those who will be coming to visit the Territory. We might need to invest some money into making that happen. I would hate to think that we would lose the benefit of that Commonwealth opportunity merely because we cannot find a few hundred thousand dollars of existing government funds to generate some matching commitment by the ACT Government. Perhaps we can invest money raised by entry fees to make something worth while happen inside the park which is supportable by all who are concerned about the environment.

I would ask the Greens not to close their minds to those sorts of options because, other than just maintaining what is there already, they can expand what is available there to generate opportunities and to further protect the environment. That is worth while in my view, Mr Speaker, and I would support that option being explored at least, rather than people saying, "No, it cannot be considered; it is off the agenda".

Ms Horodny: Where is the management plan?

MR HUMPHRIES: It is being developed.

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