Page 4869 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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Let me go to other things that Mr Stanhope said. I have never suggested for a minute that anyone in TAMS is enjoying cutting down trees.
Mr Stanhope: That’s what they will think you are saying, let me tell you. That is what they will think you are doing.
MS LE COUTEUR: I cannot comment on what Mr Stanhope thinks some people in TAMS may say. All I can say is that I have never said this and I do not think this. I do not believe that anybody has said that.
Mr Stanhope also seems to believe that this has come somehow out of the blue. For Mr Stanhope’s reference, I and my office have had numerous communications with his office on the general issue of urban tree management. We have had a number of briefings on it, including the briefing that Ms Hunter and Mrs Dunne referred to with the urban tree reference group.
We have not gone out of our way to politicise it. I must admit that if in fact all 282 trees that have been cut down in the ACT have had political intervention, all I can say is that the Liberal Party must have been incredibly active, because I have not managed to do anything like that number of interventions.
What we get from this is that it is a very emotional issue. That is why we had such an emotional outburst from Mr Stanhope. I guess that shows what I would say is my wisdom in trying to put forward a non-emotional motion which would enable the Assembly to all say collectively to the people of Canberra that we think this is a really important issue and that we are not going to cut down trees willy-nilly.
Mr Stanhope: Do you think we are already? There you go again.
MS LE COUTEUR: Mr Stanhope, that is not what I said, and you know that is not what I said.
Mr Stanhope: Do you think that we are cutting down trees willy-nilly?
MS LE COUTEUR: As you know, that is not what I said. Mr Stanhope, what this Assembly needs to do is stop saying mischievous things like the ones you are saying. I thought that as a tripartite group we could all say that we believe that the trees of Canberra are important, we intend to look after them as well as we can, we will cut them down only if it is necessary to cut them down, and if they are cut down we will replace them and look after the trees that we replace them with. Mr Stanhope, you know that this is the sort of thing we are trying to say.
Another point I would like to make is this. Why are you disbanding the urban forest reference group? This seemed like a really useful expert group. Given that I think there is tripartite agreement that sooner or later we will have to deal with this issue, keeping the reference group together to work on how to better do it would be one of the more positive things the government could do. Mr Stanhope appears to be cutting off his nose to spite his face.
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