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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2125 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes. My last point, Mr Speaker, is about the claim that the vineyard at Pialligo will destroy the native woodland area out there. The other day I had a meeting with members of the Conservation Council and with other people associated with that project. We had some matters to go away and settle, Mr Speaker, but I think it is a gross exaggeration to say that the natural values of that area are going to be destroyed by the creation of a vineyard there.

Ms Horodny: You are not cutting down hundreds of trees?

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, some trees are being cut down. That is true. Some trees will be cut down. But, Mr Speaker, if Ms Horodny maintains - - -

Ms Horodny: Two hundred woodland trees.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, it really is hard - - -

MR SPEAKER: Ms Horodny, I warn you. The next step is naming. I warn you.

Mr Wood: The quietest person in the Assembly.

MR HUMPHRIES: She is, but she is making up for it tonight. If you claim that cutting down some trees equals destroying the natural values of those areas, if you maintain that that is the case, then we are destroying vast amounts all over the Territory and, indeed, all over Australia. It is wrong to claim - - -

Mr Wood: I am here to defend Lucy Horodny.

MR SPEAKER: You will not be here at all very shortly, Mr Wood.

MR HUMPHRIES: You and your friend, Lucy. If you maintain a line as hard as that, you are never going to be able to do anything without destroying the environment in those terms. That is setting the bar so incredibly high that you have a self-serving answer for every claim the Greens make - - -

Mr Wood: Are you knocking down the orange trees there?

MR SPEAKER: Careful. Come on; let us get on with it.

MR HUMPHRIES: What is it? I think someone is releasing gas into this place, Mr Speaker. Everything that anybody does is going to be destroying the environment. We know that that is the kind of standard which it is impossible not to breach. Mr Speaker, I think those who are seriously concerned about protecting the environment will ignore the scaremongering that they hear from some of the people on the crossbenches.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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