Page 4003 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 12 December 2006
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meant to mention all of those things and not really say that we have not done anything at all. I am sure that she was just fumbling around looking to use up her 10 minutes.
Mr Speaker, those are just some of the little things that the government has done. We are committed to delivering environmentally sustainable solutions in the ACT. Often our decisions are not particularly popular at the time. However, as one does with unpopular decisions, we just have to get on with it. For example, the restructuring to integrate more closely related activities such as environment and sustainability within the new Department of Territory and Municipal Services also included the integration of land management groups into a single land manager. It integrated the compliance and regulatory areas and it integrated the key policy areas relating to sustainability, no waste and the natural environment.
We recognise that there is intrinsic linkage in things such our natural environment, the urban environment, no waste strategies and water strategies. In fact, they actually come under the wider umbrella of sustainability. So it makes an awful lot of sense to try to bring those together within one area of government so that the conversations over the partition actually occur. We do not have silos. That is not what we are about.
I turn to some of the things that we do. We now have what we call parks, conservation and lands putting a lot of these things together. They are responsible for urban parks such as Glebe Park and Margaret Timpson Park, for district parks such as the ones at Tuggeranong and Point Hut, and for Tidbinbilla and Namadgi in the nature park. We brought all of those together in an environmentally sustainable approach. There are the things that Jon Stanhope kicked off earlier, such as the predator proof fence that is going up around Mulligans Flat. We hope ultimately, funds permitted, to extend into the Goorooyarroo area.
Mr Speaker, what really does irritate us is that environmental sustainability is a community thing and is not something on which we should be taking political points and pot shots at each other. Dr Foskey talked about the waste initiative for the Assembly building. We got a highly commended certificate in the no waste awards. We do not advertise enough, for example, for people to go and get their party supplies from Shop Basics in Fyshwick, where all of the materials on sale in the shop are recycled. The plates, knives and forks, all of that stuff, are recycled. I urge members who have not been there to go and look at that shop. Members will be absolutely astounded at the things in this place that can be recycled. It is about environmental sustainability.
Mrs Dunne talked about putrescible waste, which is a challenge to us all. It is not something to be just swept under the carpet. It would be a bit hard to sweep that stuff under the carpet, let me tell you, but it is a challenge. The work that is happening at the Mugga Lane landfill is something that we should be celebrating and applauding. The stuff that Chris Horsey of ACT NOWaste and his troops have pioneered out there at the MRF is just fantastic. We should be racking up those as credits for the ACT community. Certainly the government of the day can claim credit for that but, if it did not have the support of the community to do it, it just would not happen. The activities of the MRF are brilliant. I am happy to arrange a trip out there for those members who have not been there. I have extended such an invitation before. We are now looking at having some sort of a land arrangement, if we can, with another
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