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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2544 ..

MR MOORE (4.12): I present Report No. 29 of the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment, entitled "Draft Plan of Management for the Murrumbidgee River Corridor", together with a copy of extracts of the minutes of proceedings. This report was provided to the Speaker for circulation on Tuesday, 12 August 1997, pursuant to the resolution of appointment. I move:

That the report be noted.

I think it is important to use the opportunity to comment on the disappointment of the committee, and probably the Government, with the slow progress made by successive governments in finalising plans of management for the Territory's public land, especially significant areas of the public land such as the Murrumbidgee River Corridor, Tidbinbilla and other areas of Canberra Nature Park. The committee was told that only one management plan had been finalised since self-government and that that was the one for Jerrabomberra Wetlands. That having been said, we welcome the fact that this is the beginning of such plans.

Concern was expressed to the committee in public hearing that the difficulty was that the management plan failed to meet some of the more detailed criteria. The head of Environment ACT assured the committee that there would be a final management plan that would be accompanied by a series of implementation plans and that that would be done within the year. On that basis the committee recommended that the Government approve the final management plan. However, the committee did recommend some modifications. The committee recommended improving the relevance of some of the management objectives; providing more detail about the manner in which the activities in the corridor interlink with the activities of other bodies along the river, including other States and catchment groups; and providing more detail about how the management authorities intend to deal with land uses and land users that abut the Murrumbidgee River Corridor. It also recommended clarifying, simplifying and editing the language of the document. In some ways that seems to be a very minor thing. Perhaps the fact that it is a final draft gives us the opportunity to do that. These things ought to be very easy for ordinary people to read. I emphasise to the Minister that we were very serious about that comment.

We also recommended outlining the manner in which the management authorities intend to handle the other situations where management strategies are in conflict. In addition, the committee considers that not just the head of Environment ACT but the Government itself should make a commitment to finalise the implementation plans for specific areas of the Murrumbidgee River Corridor within 12 months of the date of this report and via a process of full community consultation. The committee is actually quite excited that we are under way with management plans for the Murrumbidgee River Corridor and respects the very good work of Environment ACT in getting these under way. We believe that when these plans express a good overview we get much better outcomes for the ACT. I commend Report No. 29 to the Assembly.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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