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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2511 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I am delighted to table this report on behalf of my committee, the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services. It informs members about the conference last month in Darwin attended by members of the public works committees and environment committees from all Australian states and territories.

The conference is an annual event which provides members with an opportunity to discuss ideas with fellow parliamentarians and learn from what they are doing in their jurisdictions. In return, we give an outline of our performance as a committee and how the important issues of public works and the environment are affecting the ACT and being handled by the ACT. This year we reported on the committee's many activities, and we took great delight in bringing forward one of the major items before the committee-that is, John Dedman Drive, now known as Gungahlin Drive. We reported to the various environmental committees throughout Australia on this issue.

As we have done each year, we produce this report to the parliament so that we can share our insights with all members of this house as well as demonstrate our accountability for the use of public funds. In the report I have tabled today, we have highlighted four particularly interesting aspects of the conference. The first is the Northern Territory parliamentary building, which was the venue for the conference. We comment on the inclusive nature of the Northern Territory parliament compared to our own building, and we mention some aspects of their committee rooms.

Second, we comment on the way our parliamentary committees manage their workloads, and we give some examples of interesting parliamentary inquiries across the nation. Third, we provide a brief update on the way that committees are dealing with the increasing involvement of the private sector in providing public works.

Fourth, we outline our favourable impressions of the Northern Territory land information system. We note that in our report on last year's national conference we drew attention to the advantages of the Tasmanian land information system and. After hearing about both the Northern Territory and the Tasmanian systems, we concluded that the ACT needs to hasten the development of its own land information system. I know that the Chief Minister and her officers are working to bring the various departments together to achieve this end, and it is hoped that my committee can assist in that regard. The committee has resolved to conduct an inquiry into a comprehensive, usable, publicly accessible and central land information system in the ACT. I will formally inform the house of this development in these sittings.

Mr Speaker, it would be remiss of me not to mention the generous and thoroughly delightful hospitality of the Northern Territory parliament, especially of the Speaker, your colleague, the Hon T McCarthy MLA, and the chair of the Sessional Committee on the Environment, Dr Richard Lim MLA, who hosted the conference.

To indicate the high regard in which the ACT is held at national meetings such as this, I close by mentioning that for the first time ever the ACT was honoured to be asked to chair the conference session in which each participating committee reported on its activities in the past year.

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