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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 181 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
refer to some of the impacts on Bruce Ridge of Labor's and the Democrats' option. There is a very significant submission from a group of people who were prepared to do the work and tap into the expertise on the impact on bird life.
The submission contains a table of bird species which would not normally be found in gardens and depend on the ridge for nesting sites, seasonal passage and refuge. These birds include the common bronzewing, the black-shouldered kite, the superb parrot, Horsefield's bronze cuckoo, the shining bronze-cuckoo, the scarlet robin, the red-capped robin, the eastern yellow robin, the western gerygone, the speckled warbler, the superb fairy-wren, the mistletoebird, the spotted pardalote, the double-barred finch and the red-browed firetail.
This submission was put together in 1997, but since then Freudenberger and the CSIRO have carried out a study of habitat values around Canberra and the impact of fragmentation. In this project O'Connor Ridge was assessed. Bruce Ridge is part of the area that is important because of the fragmentation aspect. In this project, this area was assessed very highly as a habitat for birds, including species vulnerable across New South Wales, such as the speckled warbler.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Emergency housing
MS DUNDAS (5.15): I move:
That this Assembly:
recognises that access to emergency housing is an important element of services to support young people.
believes that young people should not have to be separated from their support networks and educational activities to access emergency housing.
finds it distressing that the provision of youth emergency housing in Canberra and, in particular, in the Belconnen area, is inadequate.
calls for the Government to address the inadequate provision of youth emergency housing in Belconnen and Gungahlin as a matter of high priority.
Mr Speaker, I have lived in the electorate of Ginninderra, in the Belconnen area, all my life. Unlike many other young people in the area, I have been fortunate enough to have never needed crisis accommodation. However, I am appalled that there is no youth specific crisis accommodation in the Belconnen or Gungahlin areas. While I am especially concerned with the situation in this area, I am aware that the problem is Canberra wide.
The inadequate provision of these services means that young people in crisis in the Belconnen area have to travel to the other side of Civic to access crisis accommodation. In doing so they must leave behind their local support networks and many of their friends.
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