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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1650 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

at some stage, to table in the Assembly information on the amount of time and money the taxpayer has been put to in answering questions like that. That would be information that the taxpayer, I think, would be interested in having. I will take the body of the question on notice. I hope Ms Horodny will take the issue on notice and not rush to a false and misleading press release.

MS HORODNY: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Mr Humphries, if you had a strategy for your Landcare money, it would not take you so long to get that information together; it should all be at your fingertips. How do you determine the priorities for spending on Decade of Landcare projects? Could you table any policies or guidelines, any at all, used within the Department of Urban Services for determining these priorities - anything you have to clear this matter up.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, in fact, I can. Later this week I will be tabling the Territory's draft nature conservation strategy which includes, among other things, ways in which we should be directing priorities towards major projects on a long-term basis. However, I would suggest to Ms Horodny that if she had cared to look a little deeper, or had asked some questions, she would have found that those sorts of issues about grant programs being pursued already have been thoroughly canvassed within my department. Of course, members would be aware - perhaps Ms Horodny is also aware - that the Environment Advisory Committee, as it is now called, plays a role in determining grants, including Landcare grants, and that it has, if you like, practices and protocols for the way in which it goes about its work. I do not know whether or not they are reduced to writing. I can try to find out for Ms Horodny's benefit.

But let me say that your touching faith in a strategy and a document - if we have produced lots of documents, then we are fine; we are doing the work of government - is not a view that I share. A far more important role for the Government is actually delivering on things, actually getting out and doing things. I know that the Greens are obsessed about process; as long as we can agree on the process and get the process right and produce lots of paper about how things are going to work, then everything will fall into place. I do not have the same faith in paper. My view is that governments have to get out there and ultimately deliver on areas that are of concern. I think we are doing that in respect of the environment. I think the evidence of that is very clear.

MS REILLY: My question is to Mr Kaine in his capacity as Minister for Urban Services. Minister, in your Chief Minister's 1996-97 budget, the jobs budget, it was claimed that part of the employment opportunities that were to be made available to young people included the establishment of the graffiti squad. Minister, can you confirm that the Department of Urban Services is no longer going to employ young people to remove graffiti? What will happen to the 43 young people currently employed in the program?

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