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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (2 April) . . Page.. 1311 ..

Mrs Cross: Who said that?

MR SMYTH: Mr Corbell said that-the shadow minister for planning and environment in the former Labor opposition who is the Minister for Planning in the current Labor government and who has been rolled in cabinet. He went on to say:

The north Watson area is an area of yellow box/Blakely's red gum grassy woodland, although it has a degraded understorey-that is, a degraded grassland element. This type of woodland is highly endangered. I will give you some background.

Mr Corbell went on to give some background and it was material that we had all heard. He finished his speech of the day by quoting what Phillip Toyne said at a meeting there. I think Mr Cornwell was there. I was there and Mr Corbell was there and Phillip Toyne talked about what is being lost and what has gone, in his opinion.

Mrs Cross: Kerrie was there, too.

MR SMYTH: My apologies, Ms Tucker; you were most certainly there. I remember that. Mr Toyne finished by saying:

If there was a planning decision to make that area available for housing, it has to be reversed.

Mr Corbell agreed on behalf of the Labor Party. Mr Corbell went on to say:

That is why the Labor Party is moving this motion today. We believe it is important that this site is protected from development. We believe that, as a minimum, it should be incorporated into the urban open space network of the city. That is what this motion requests the government-

the government of the day, the Liberal Party-

to do. We believe that further work needs to be done on deciding exactly where the buffer zone should be between the end of this woodland area and the commencement of the grassland area below it. That is something we would be interested in pursuing further and have already indicated to the Watson Community Association, who have been one of the key proponents in this issue.

Mr Stanhope, the Minister for the Environment, got up here earlier and said, "Can't do it, degraded woodland. The department of the environment told us to forget it."But what did the Labor Party say in the lead-up to the last election? What did the Labor Party say when we debated this issue? What did the Labor Party say when we put the same words exactly to this Assembly?

Mr Stanhope: We said we'd protect the trees, and we did.

MR SMYTH: No, you are wrong. Mr Corbell said:

I ask Assembly members this morning to consider this site as part of an endangered ecological community. Degraded understorey, yes, but nevertheless an endangered

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