Page 765 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2005

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Hargreaves.

MRS DUNNE: You do not know anything about forests, Mr Hargreaves. You are a disgrace.

Mr Hargreaves: You are not talking to me like you do the students at O Week! Don’t bully me!

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Hargreaves.

MRS DUNNE: The evidence before the fires showed that pines do not do very well in the Canberra region because of soil type and rainfall. There are a whole lot of other things that we could do in the place. We could replant to native bush and grasses, we could plant, in selective ways, a variety of native and exotic trees that might be used for commercial purposes in the future. That could be rare cabinet timbers, cork or oak—all of those sorts of things. There could also be, in some very limited areas, commercial cropping but it would have to be low impact commercial cropping.

There are a whole lot of things that were not considered here, in any clear way. We have seen this government having made up its mind. I do not know if they were pressured, but they have made a wrong decision and they are incapable of turning back. This amendment, which has succeeded, has shown just how incapable they are of turning back and how incapable, as a group of human beings, they are of looking at their decision, weighing it up and seeing whether it was the right decision. This government made a wrong decision, and it has reinforced that wrong decision today in this place. One day it will reap the whirlwind. One day these people will be held to account for it, but today is obviously not going to be that day.

Question put:

That Mrs Dunne’s motion, as amended, be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 8

Noes 7

Mr Berry

Mr Hargreaves

Mrs Burke

Mr Pratt

Mr Corbell

Ms MacDonald

Mrs Dunne

Mr Smyth

Ms Gallagher

Ms Porter

Dr Foskey

Mr Stefaniak

Mr Gentleman

Mr Stanhope

Mr Mulcahy

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Smoking in public places

DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (11.55): I move:

That this Assembly:

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .