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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (12 March) . . Page.. 912 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

However, following assessments in the past 18 months-which resulted from previous reviews of Action Plan 10-62 hectares, or just over 70 per cent of the total original area of east O'Malley, have now been incorporated into Canberra Nature Park. Those 62 hectares are being protected now, as the government is proceeding with a variation to the Territory Plan to give effect to that protection. I stress that the government is not oblivious to these issues. The government is working on these issues in a considered and deliberate way.

I move the following amendment circulated in my name:

That is a more deliberate outcome than one that recognises that every single area, regardless of its relationship to relative areas of the same ecological community and regardless of its overall ecological condition, should be given immediate protection. This is about ensuring an appropriate balance between the social, economic and environmental issues that we have to consider.

MS DUNDAS (11.20): I will also address the substantive motion. The recent bushfires have sparked a flurry of planning activity because the loss of so much of the ACT forest estate has provided the opportunity to quickly re-assess how we are using our land in the ACT.

We have a very valuable opportunity to reshape the development of our city, but we should not let haste lead us to forget about the valuable planning and conservation assessment processes that were already under way before the bushfires struck. With so much happening so quickly, it is almost certain that some aspects of the planning process will go awry. This motion, moved by Ms Tucker today, is intended to address a particular consideration: conservation of our most threatened ecological community.

Woodlands and grasslands across Australia are among our most endangered communities. They were easy communities for pastoralists to move their stock into at the time of European settlement because of their open structure. Most woodland communities were largely cleared during the first 50 years of European settlement in the region. In the ACT and surrounding regions a number of woodland and grassland communities are teetering on the brink of extinction, and the yellow box/red gum grassy woodland is the most notable.

The review of Action Plan 10, which deals with the endangered yellow box/red gum grassy woodland community, was under way before the fires and was due, I understand, to be completed in about two months' time. The development of the woodlands

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