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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3827 ..

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (11.06): Mr Speaker, these two Bills follow on from the report that was considered earlier in the year on managing fuel in areas around Canberra and the ACT to ensure that we minimise the risk of bushfire. The key elements of these Bills are to implement some of the recommendations that were in that report and make it compulsory for managers of bushfire-prone government land to prepare bushfire fuel management plans. It seems self-evident to me that people managing land, whether they are private owners of land or whether they are managers of government land, have to take responsibility for the fuel management of those properties to ensure that they minimise the risk of bushfire and of it spreading.

Mr Speaker, these two pieces of legislation work together to provide the framework for those plans and to allow the process of development of those plans to continue so that as we move into the next seasons we will have a situation where we have fuel management plans for all government land and, as a result, have a good understanding of the implications of policies to minimise fuel on government land and have confidence that all is being done to minimise risks to government land and to the lands around the ACT. The Air Pollution (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) makes further arrangements for permits for the burning of plant matter. Once again, I believe it is a sensible amendment in line with those policies. The Opposition will be supporting these two amendment Bills.

MS HORODNY (11.09): Mr Speaker, the Greens will support these Bills. We note that the Bills implement the recommendations of the task force on fuel management practices, which was chaired by Graham Glenn and which reviewed current practices for bushfire fuel management in the ACT. The task force came up with a number of recommendations that focused on the need to reduce the potential for bushfire outbreaks, through the establishment of bushfire fuel management plans for public lands. We appreciate the fact that conservation groups were represented on the task force and were able to provide considerable input into the task force's recommendations. There is a formal recognition in the Bills that it is possible for fire to be used as a management tool for conserving the biological integrity of a particular ecosystem. However, this can be done only with a great deal of care and forethought. One example that comes quickly to mind is serrated tussock, which can easily establish itself in native grasslands if the native grasslands burning management practice is not carried out very carefully.

I have a few quick comments on these Bills. They set a framework for the development of bushfire fuel management plans. The critical issue will be the content of such plans and, for us, whether environmental considerations have been adequately taken into account. We are, therefore, pleased that the draft plans will be released for public comment before finalisation and that such plans will be available for public inspection. We are also pleased that there are deadlines incorporated into the Bushfire (Amendment) Bill for the production of the draft fuel managements plans. The delays that have taken place in the development of nature conservations plans and strategies, as required under the Nature Conservation Act, have been an ongoing concern to us.

Another point to note about these Bills is that these bushfire fuel management plans will apply only to public lands such as the various nature reserves and open space areas. Given that nearly a quarter of the ACT is rural land, there is also a need to look at bushfire management on private rural properties. I note that the task force felt that rural

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