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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4612 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

The really interesting part to me is that we can improve the quality of outdoor lighting without any long-term cost to the community. There will be some short-term costs, but they will be recouped within the first couple of years. It is something we should do gradually. Outdoor lighting in the ACT has been handled fairly well and we can now proceed down the path to improve on that.

The committee has come up with a series of recommendations that are not over the top. The recommendations are about ensuring an appropriate process to protect the night skies we have, to protect astronomical societies and to protect the astronomical activities that are conducted on Mount Stromlo. The committee has recommended a series of measures to ensure that our outdoor lighting has less and less impact on the night skies, so that we slowly improve our night skies. I can see our Feel the Power of Canberra advertising campaign including the power of visitors to look at a night sky, thus enhancing the importance of Mount Stromlo and other astronomical sites.

At the beginning of this year I was fortunate to do some travel in Europe, where I saw some very clear skies. On a couple of nights I was able to get a very clear view of the Hale-Bopp comet. It was absolutely spectacular. But, beyond seeing that comet, it was very difficult to get a really clear view of the night sky in Europe. The same applied when I was in the United States and Canada. Apart from in some of the desert areas and prairie areas there, you generally do not get such clear views of the night skies as you get in Australia, particularly in an area like Canberra. We have an opportunity to fill a niche by marketing Canberra as a place where people can come to enjoy something spectacular.

I want to make a couple of minor comments about the dissenting report by Mrs Littlewood. Mrs Littlewood's concern is twofold. She believes that there are higher priorities for Canberra. I think that is a matter of judgment. We all make judgments about our priorities. Before I started this investigation, I would have agreed with her wholeheartedly. I urge members to look at the committee report. I believe that we can take a long-term view of this. There will be little cost to Canberra and little cost to business but great benefit to our children and to the tourism industry.

The other point that Mrs Littlewood makes is that the long-term recommendations contained in the report should be subject to a cost-benefit analysis. I believe that we worked that into our recommendations. It is not something on which I disagree with her. They are fairly minor issues. I understand her perspective; but it seems to me that this is an opportunity for us to move ahead, and I hope it is an opportunity that will be welcomed and taken up by government.

We have a specific example of how we can apply the recommendations of this report right now. There is some controversy - we heard about it at question time today - over lights at the oval at Downer. What comes through in this report is that lights can be installed in a way that does not affect the night sky and does not throw light beyond the particular area they illuminate. If people want to see an example of how this can be done well,

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