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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2379 ..

This amendment accommodates one of Ms Tucker’s concerns, ensuring that people with relevant skills are part of all this process. It is a clearer definition of what is required and is quite acceptable.

MS TUCKER (9.22): The Greens are very pleased with, and will be supporting, this amendment. It is one that we worked on with the commissioner and members of the community, which I appreciate. The amendment finetunes the definition of the environment representative on the Bushfire Council. As I have said many times, it is essential that we take into account the environmental values and knowledge of ecology and biodiversity when planning most activities—fire prevention even more so, as there are important synergies that should be known and great risks to environmental values if the planning is not done carefully.

My first reaction to the original wording was that it would be better to have a reference to the science of ecology, or even better, fire ecology. However, on discussing it with people from the community with interest and expertise in the environment and in representing the environment in various forums, it came back that this could be a problem in that, firstly, there would be a narrower pool of people to draw from; and, secondly, that some ability to engage with the fire community is essential, perhaps from experience in fire fighting or perhaps from more personal qualities or other experience or knowledge of land management.

It is also important that the representative is able to work with policy, with large documents, planning maps, zoning and so on, as well as being able to connect with expertise and interest in the environment and environmental issues related to fire and fire prevention. Because of the way the council is to work—that is, to function in a representative way and to go out and discuss matters with broader constituencies—it is also not essential to have a scientist as such, although being able to discuss and engage in scientifically-informed discussions will be important. So, in the end, the original wording, which concerns a link to the community of interest, seemed more important.

The amendment seeks to add the words “with relevant skills or experience”, which recognises that the position needs to have some skills. It is important the position is filled and that it be effective. At the same time, the description is not so restrictive that this will work against having the position filled. I think it would be very difficult for a minister to argue that the position could not be filled.

MS DUNDAS (9.24): Mr Speaker, I will be supporting this amendment as well. It makes a minor change to the membership of the Bushfire Council to ensure that there is someone on the council with the appropriate skills or experience to represent the community’s interest in relation to the environment. This amendment will assist in ensuring the council has greater knowledge of biodiversity and fire ecology issues. I endorse the work that Ms Tucker and the community have done with the Emergency Services Authority in working towards this amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 129, as amended, agreed to.

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