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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 623 ..

Amendment agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

FAUNAL AND FLORAL EMBLEMS

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (6.47): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) having considered the Report of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism on a bird and/or another animal emblem for the Australian Capital Territory and the Government's response to that Report, adopts the Gang Gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum) as the faunal emblem for the Territory; and

(2) formally endorses the Royal Bluebell (Wahlenbergia gloriosa) as the official floral emblem for the Territory.

Members will recall that last Thursday I tabled the Government's response to Report No. 3 of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism inquiry into a bird and/or another animal emblem. At the time, I advised members that the Government wished to seek their endorsement of the gang-gang as the faunal emblem of the ACT and of the royal bluebell as the floral emblem. I also advised members that I would be asking the Minister for Arts and Heritage to undertake a process of developing a stylised representation of the gang-gang. Once members have given their endorsement, this process can commence. I hope the emblem can then be used and promoted as something we can all be proud of.

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (6.49): The Opposition will be supporting the motion. There are some matters dealt with in the recommendations about the manner of use of these emblems that we need to consider, and I hope we will get a chance to deal with those at a later time. The consultation around this seems to consist of the consultation undertaken by the committee. On balance, the committee's consultation in relation to the gang-gang cockatoo seems to point to that being far and away the preferred approach.

I have one slight reservation in relation to the floral emblem. I know that it was adopted in 1982, and the committee does not seem to reopen that issue in its consideration. My hesitation is that the royal bluebell is limited in its use by citizens of the Territory by the fact that it is basically an alpine flower and grows pretty badly where the people of Canberra actually live.

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