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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 19 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I commend all those people who, over a quite long period now, have been responsible for this strategy. I look forward, over a very much longer period, to its successful completion.

MR MOORE (12.11): Mr Speaker, in rising to make some positive comments on the weeds strategy, I must also draw attention to a small amount of churlishness on the part of the Minister. Indeed, I think, in doing so, I am supporting what Mr Wood has just been saying in his speech. Mr Humphries suggested that the development of an ACT weeds strategy was commenced in 1995. Mr Speaker, the report that Mr Wood referred to - the report of the Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment on feral animals and invasive plants - went through a significant amount of work, leading to a call for this sort of thing. There is no recognition of that in Mr Humphries's speech. Mr Wood also responded to that and had begun the work. There is no recognition of that in Mr Humphries's speech.

Let me put aside that small amount of churlishness. It is very satisfying indeed to have been involved in a committee that has taken on a new issue. At the time it was taken on by the committee, it was something that was new and that we believed needed particular care. The community interest was raised and the issue was dealt with very thoroughly. It is one of the reports I am most proud of. Mr Speaker, in fact, as I recall, it was one of the reports where we produced a discussion paper first, followed by the community input, followed by the report itself. So, I am very pleased to see the culmination of that work that was done by Mr Wood and this strategy that has now been developed with even more community input.

The problem now is to ensure that there are adequate funds to make the weeds strategy work and for us to look at the other side of the issue - feral animals. I know that the Minister has done some work on that, but I think the general strategy is yet to be developed. Mr Speaker, I support what Mr Humphries is trying to achieve here. I believe that it is the culmination of a whole series of pieces of work done by the community, the Assembly and previous Ministers. I encourage the Minister to continue with the work.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (12.14), in reply: I thank members for their support for the strategy. I certainly endorse many of the comments that have been made concerning the direction in which the strategy will take the Territory over the next 10 years. As members have noted, this is a 10-year plan to deal with a problem which has built up, no doubt, over at least 150 years of white settlement in this part of Australia. Our need to urgently address this problem is accelerated by the fact that there has been, clearly, a very marked rise in the invasiveness of a number of species of weed in the last few years. There seems to be an exponential increase in the extent of the problem. Expenditure on a reasonably large scale is required at this early point in order to be able to deal with that problem. That is, of course, the basis for the strategy that the Government has announced.

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