Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3559 ..
At 5.00 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MR RUGENDYKE: I think that it is unfortunate that the lobbyists for Mr Stanhope's amendment failed to mention the full story; but, having said that, I have given Mr Stanhope a commitment to support his amendment and that is what I will do.
MS TUCKER (5.02): I wish to adjourn the debate at this point because I was not able to get a briefing on this matter from the minister and I am not sure now of my position. I would like the opportunity to have more time to do so, so I move:
That the debate be adjourned.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Debate adjourned to the next sitting.
Debate resumed from 2 March 2000, on motion by Mr Smyth:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR CORBELL (5:03): Mr Speaker, it is interesting to note that this bill was tabled in the early months of this year, and it is only on the second last sitting week of the year that we have come to deal with what is on the face of it a relatively minor piece of legislation-minor in the changes it will make but certainly important in the context of ensuring that the territory has effective state of the environment reporting.
It was of course an initiative of the previous Labor government, under the then minister for the environment, Bill Wood, that established the office of the Commissioner for the Environment, and it was the previous Labor government, again under Minister Wood, who appointed the first and still the only commissioner, Dr Joe Baker. Dr Baker is well respected on all sides of this place for his exemplary work and his considerable experience in preparing state of the environment reports for the territory.
He is respected not only in that role he has undertaken in previous years but also in the role of preparing the whole-of-region reports that. It is the confluence of the reporting at a whole-of-region level compared with territory level which has led to this proposed change, along with the fact that the change to the ACT's electoral date means that there must be a change in when the State of the Environment Report is presented.
It is only commonsense to ensure that the State of the Environment Report is prepared well before an ACT election, which is held every three years in October. The Labor Party welcomes the proposal to change the reporting date to allow all parties in this place to properly scrutinise the State of the Environment Report that will be brought out by the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .