Page 1553 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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Assembly and this community to take note of. The report provides a detailed assessment, analysis and series of recommendations about the state of the ACT’s grasslands.
The grasslands in the ACT are a habitat of some significance. We know—and the report details with great accuracy, I think—the state of grasslands and the fact that there is a very small proportion of these grasslands left compared to the historical range of this habitat. I think the report does an excellent job both of looking at the threats to the grasslands and of making recommendations on what we should do in the future.
What I would say is that, in the context of recent public debate, it is important that we not lose sight of the broad range of threats identified by the commissioner to two grasslands here in the ACT. I think there has been a great deal of debate around and focus on the overgrazing by kangaroos and the recommendation of the commissioner to undertake an immediate cull of kangaroos. I think that is understandably so. But I think it is important that we do not lose sight of the fact that the commissioner identified a range of threats to the grasslands in the ACT.
Those threats include overgrazing by stock and rabbits as well as kangaroos, but the threat also includes weeds and inappropriate mowing. I think these are all issues that we need to take into account and look closely at. I look forward to the government’s response to the commissioner’s report in looking at this full range of threats. I am quite sure that the government is mindful of all of these issues and is not just caught up in the public debate around the issue of overgrazing by kangaroos. So I think it is important to stress that and to make sure that we do not get, in the context of the public debate, focused on just this one threat and that we understand all of the threats to our grasslands.
We have also got the issue of the encroachment of development, and this is going to become a very real issue as we move forward, particularly in areas of the Majura Valley and to the south of Fyshwick in the area in and around the prison, which is generally known as the Jerrabomberra Creek area. These are areas where there is a significant amount of the recognised grassland. There are some areas of particular quality. With all the proposals that are on the table for the development in those areas, including around the airport and also south of Fyshwick with this eastern broadacre study, it is important that we move to protect the grasslands.
In particular, I believe that we should move to protect the area immediately north of Canberra airport. That is an area of natural temperate grasslands that are highly valued, that are in a good state at the moment and that do require protection. So I support the commissioner’s recommendation that this area be declared a nature reserve, and I think we should move to do that urgently.
I would also make a note about an area on the western side of the current Majura Road at the foothills of Mount Ainslie, an area known as west Majura. In 2004 the Labor Party gave an undertaking to create a reserve for this area, and it is my understanding that the reserve has still not been created. So, five years later, despite the election promise in 2004, the west Majura grassland is not being protected, and I
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