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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1296 ..

ANU botanist Dr Rod Peakall, who is using Black Mountain to study orchid pollination—also research with international recognition—is opposing this road. It is indeed ironic that on one hand this government wants to promote Canberra as a research centre but with the other it rips out the sources of research. As Professor Cockburn said in the Canberra Times, there has been no attention to environmental or scientific values. Black Mountain is one of the greatest scientific laboratories in the world. ANU Plant Ecologist Jake Gillan also said that the road would destroy important remnant bushland.

The ACT should be leading Australia in management and conservation of remnant bushland and Canberra should be justly proud of its epithet “the bush capital”, because there is bugger-all remnant bush left in Australia. Dr Paul Sattler, in his report to the federal government, has warned that there has been a massive contraction in the geographical range of native mammals; that bird species are declining; and that a further wave of extinctions is likely unless habitat is preserved. The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists also listed clearing of native vegetation as the most significant and persistent threat to biodiversity.

As we know from debates on other ecologically disastrous decisions of the government, such as East O’Malley, Dr Hugh Possingham has stressed the need to include urban development in land clearing controls. Statements and reassurances that we can do both—put houses, people, domestic animals and cars into precious ecological areas without there being any serious impact—just do not stand up to scientific scrutiny. Such statements are no more than political spin, and the scientists are saying so.

We know that clearing of vegetation is reducing bird populations, particularly woodland species. We know that freeways cause road kill. We know that Black Mountain is important for woodland birds and that the freeway will go through a focal point for some important species that are, according to Professor Cockburn, already in a bit of trouble—the sittellas, the speckled warblers and the button quail. Black Mountain is the major hot spot for button quail in the ACT. On the flora of the area, Dr Dean Rouse has identified more than 60 native orchid species on Black Mountain, half of which will be destroyed by the freeway.

Another illustration of the importance of up-to-date studies is the news that three specimens of an endangered plant were found just last summer on Black Mountain. The small purple pea or mountain Swainson pea—scientific name Swainsona recta—is listed as an endangered species on national lists. In New South Wales and the ACT it is listed as endangered under section 21 of the Nature Conservation Act 1980 and is a ‘special protection status species’ under schedule 6 of the same act. The action plan for the small purple pea notes that the existing populations are very small, cover a small area and are isolated from each other and therefore very vulnerable. A single event could wipe out a large proportion of the surviving species. Well done, Labor.

Small populations of the small purple pea are known to exist at Kambah, Mount Taylor, Long Gully Road and along the Tralee-Williamsdale railway easement. The largest of the populations is only 94 plants on Mount Taylor, and that is over a small area. Kambah has between eight and 14 plants and the Long Gully site has one plant. There are site specific management plans in place for each of these places. This reflects the serious nature of the threat to the ongoing existence of the plant. In 1939 a small population was

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