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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (21 June) . . Page.. 2351 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

new measures, such as the new firewood licensing scheme and the tree protection scheme, which I would point out probably would not exist if it were not for non-government members pressuring the government to adopt them. We know that there is a huge backlog in the assessment of nominations for the heritage register and that it will take years to clear.

There is extra money to implement the Namadgi National Park joint management agreement, although most of it will go on the administrative arrangements, including the appointment of two new staff, and not into on-the-ground work. The minister regularly trumpets his placement of 100 hectares of endangered grassy woodland into the Canberra Nature Park, yet it was admitted in the estimates process that there is no extra money to manage these areas. Funding of the new sustainable catchment program is less than that for the decade of land care program that it replaced. The ongoing funding of the Commissioner for the Environment also has stayed constant for the last few years, which significantly limits his capacity to undertake special investigations.

The only two environment measures that were deemed worthy of being included in the government's list of budget initiatives are not even new initiatives. Funding for the garden waste recycling service is just a continuation of a service that has been around for a number of years. The other initiative, money for the implementation of the ACT greenhouse strategy, is just a continuation from last year. In fact, it was a motion of the Greens in the last Assembly that forced the government to adopt a greenhouse gas reduction target. It is the case that the government is being quite hypocritical in that it is trumpeting the greenhouse strategy at the same time as it is spending many more millions of dollars on new roads that will just increase our dependency on car-based travel around the city, with all its attendant environmental and social problems. The government is also massively funding the V8 supercar race, which just perpetuates the glorification of the car. The government has made an indiscriminate cut to car registration, in the guise of returning money to the community, but pity those people who do not own cars and have to use our declining public transport system.

I would like to make a point about the performance and behaviour of some of the participants in the V8 supercar race. Yesterday, there was some discussion about how someone to do with the V8 supercar race-I do not know whether it was a course car-did burnouts outside one of the grammar schools. It might have been mentioned in a letter to the paper. I had communication from a number of constituents about a course car doing burnouts in front of Narrabundah College as well. It is really quite appalling that there was not a stronger sense of responsibility taken by the organisers and the racing industry itself in terms of how they behaved in the ACT, particularly in front of young people. I know that the parents in both situations were very concerned about this irresponsible-in fact, incredibly stupid-behaviour of people connected with the V8 supercar race in doing burnouts in front of these young people.

I have said many times that this government is not committed to the environment. For a government that supposedly is committed to ecologically sustainable development, it has demonstrated that it has no idea how to integrate environmental concerns into its broader decision making. Whilst the minister says that he is committed to the environment, we have as major initiatives in this budget the handing over of $10 million to car owners as a reduction in their car registration and of over $100 million for new roads. Car owners get money while the bus service is left struggling.

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