Page 2889 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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there be a large amount of the wrong type of development on the east-west line. Sometimes I sense that we are not quite sure of what the impacts are on connectivity, beyond the blindingly obvious. But if we want to proceed with urban infill and development and maintain our biodiversity in the bush capital, this will be valuable work.
With regard to a recreational management plan, once again we see no funding for a recreational management plan, but we are pleased to see that the government has committed to at least a review of the 2004 strategy in the 2011-12 financial year, and that it will be expanded to include urban parks and open space. I note that it will be prepared using in-house resources, and assume it will be integrated into the work that has already been undertaken.
There is no doubt that this issue does remain one of the more contentious areas as different park users have very different expectations about how an area should be used, and have very different requirements. I would encourage the government to continue on its path of engaging fully with the community as best as possible on all recreational use issues. Certainly, this is an area requiring constant vigilance.
The recent draft report on the Centenary Trail was an unfortunate example. The trail is designed to pass through a number of nature parks, yet the relevant park care groups were not considered to be important stakeholders. This is an extraordinary oversight and one that I trust will be rectified in later stages of developing this project. As our city gets busier, we will see increased pressure on parks and reserves, so a strategic sense of how we will use these spaces is going to be important into the future. They are the comments I wanted to make on land management.
With regard to TAMS, I think there are some good initiatives in the budget. There are some welcome areas of improved funding and resourcing. I think there are also areas that do require further improvement, and I look forward to continuing discussions with the government about that over the coming 12 months as we prepare for the next budget.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (7.49): There are a number of topics I would like to touch on in relation to the TAMS portfolio. I will probably get back to the same place where Mr Rattenbury left off, a little later in the song.
While the ACT government is willing to spend $432 million on its government office block, complete with spiffy ministerial offices and a possible sky bridge to the Legislative Assembly building, the RSPCA struggles to meet the demands it faces in the care of stray and abandoned animals. The RSPCA struggles to meet the government’s spiralling demand for services with funding that falls short of that demand.
Years ago the government told the RSPCA it would have to move to make way for the north Weston development, but no commitment has been made to assist the RSPCA to make that move and establish a new facility. The RSPCA is very willing to make the move but it needs government help. The question is: where is that? Possibly it is somewhere in the $432 million that the government has kept for itself.
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