Page 2223 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
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MR GENTLEMAN: Thank you, Mrs Dunne. We also saw how educational activities and interpretation of ecotourism is involved. There is also health promoting recreational activities, transport services and environmentally sustainable design and construction of tourism infrastructure. I would like to go a little further in regard to one of Queensland’s very successful ecotourism projects, the Kuranda skyrail system. With the environment in mind, the Queensland government and the skyrail owners, which were Quicksilver at the time, worked together to construct this program with almost no environmental impact. We heard that during construction developers helicoptered in major infrastructure components rather than go through the tropical rainforest with bulldozers and that sort of equipment which would damage the natural assets. It was a much heavier cost to use that sort of construction method, but very successful.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Gentleman, you are welcome to interpolate but standing order 246A is fairly specific in that the statement that is made to the Assembly has to be the statement that the committee has approved. Small asides are fine, but if you stray too far from what the committee has approved, you might be offending standing order 246A.
MR GENTLEMAN: My apologies, Mr Speaker. I will read straight from the approved text. As the committee chair, I delivered a report to the conference on the committee’s work over the past year, focusing on the committee’s inquiry into the proposed ACT biosphere reserve nomination, its review of the exposure draft Planning and Development Bill 2006, and committee scrutiny of the land auction for block 8 section 48 Fyshwick—now the site of the proposed Austexx factory outlet and bulky goods centre. I also promoted the ACT environment as a wonderful tourism destination with a visual presentation, which highlighted many of our environmental features and sustainable development achievements.
The committee appreciates the time and effort that tourism sector staff and other experts expended in highlighting the sustainability features of some of Queensland’s ecotourism treasures such as Couran Cove Resort, Binna Burra Mountain Lodge, Green Island Resort, as I mentioned earlier, and the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. On behalf of the committee I also place on the public record our sincere appreciation of the generosity and warm hospitality provided by our hosts in the Queensland parliament, including the secretariat staff. If members are interested in accessing any of the conference papers, these will be sent to them and will be available from the committee secretary in due course. I also thank our committee secretary, Hannah Jaireth, for her help.
MS PORTER (Ginninderra): I seek leave to make a statement in relation to the conference as a member of the committee.
Leave not granted.
Standing orders—suspension
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Planning) (12.01): I move:
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