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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2169 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

While we could see some positive aspects in the Government's proposal, we also had some niggling concerns. Firstly, there is our regular complaint with the Liberal Party's commitment to consultation and proper process. This whole proposal for entry fees was announced at the same time as the release of a draft management plan for Tidbinbilla and a draft public works implementation plan. The closing date for comments is 25 July. Both of these plans are based on the entry fees being in place, but this is still a draft proposal. Yet the Government has pushed on with implementing these fees on 1 July, which is next Tuesday, before the community has had a chance to comment on these plans. So much for allowing the management plan to be changed on the basis of public comment.

The other niggling concern we had was the fact that local residents would be severely disadvantaged by this fee. Up until now people have been able to use Tidbinbilla for a range of recreational activities, including walking through the park and picnicking. (Extension of time granted) The animal enclosures are a key feature of the reserve, but they are not its only feature. The Government wants to capitalise on tourist interest in Tidbinbilla's captive animals, but this is only a small feature of the total reserve.

Tidbinbilla is in fact made up of two zones - a special purpose zone where the animal enclosures are and, for the other two-thirds of the reserve, a national park zone. Twelve per cent of visitors to the reserve do not go to the enclosures at all but use Tidbinbilla for bushwalking and picnics. They are using the reserve in much the same way as they would use Namadgi National Park, the Murrumbidgee River corridor, or Canberra Nature Park, where entry fees do not apply. It seems to us inequitable that a bushwalker could, say, go walking on one side of the Tidbinbilla Range for nothing but would have to pay up to $8 for the privilege of walking on the other side, in the reserve area.

The other general concern we have is that all the money that is being raised from the fees is going back into improving the visitor facilities and not into enhancing the actual environment that the public are visiting. As we know, the management of kangaroos at Tidbinbilla has been a major problem, and I would like more effort to be put into avoiding the need for further kangaroo culling there. There is also a need for greater weed control, as there has been quite a deal of infestation of weeds because of the former use of the area as farmland. We would like to see some of those fees going back into the reserve itself.

I therefore put to the Minister a revised fees plan for Tidbinbilla, for entry fees to apply only to the special enclosures at Tidbinbilla and not to the rest of the reserve. This would allow the Government to finance the planned improvements to Tidbinbilla's unique facilities but would not penalise ACT residents using the reserve for picnics and walks, as they can do freely now in any other reserve in the ACT. Our proposal recognises that the special enclosures are more costly to maintain and that it is reasonable for the Government to want to improve them to attract tourists and also to offer a stronger educational opportunity for people to learn more about our natural environment. Our plan would give the Government the income stream it needs, without the inequity inherent in the determination that they have tabled.

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