Page 2872 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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needed to develop pest plant management plans for each of the ACT’s 70-plus declared plants.
In regard to rabbits, it is unclear whether last year’s commitment of $500,000 over three years for rabbit control has been retained. It seems that funding has been merged into a new $327,000 commitment over the next two years for vertebrate pest management, thereby reducing the overall funding available for rabbits. As with weed management, rabbit control is crucial to protecting our local biodiversity, so the prospect of reduced funding is concerning indeed.
When it comes to threatened species, the funding, again, is inadequate. It is hard to see where last year’s commitment of $300,000 over three years for conserving threatened species and communities has gone. Only $60,000 appears to have been allocated this year with no further funding post 2012-13. However, $101,000 in additional funding has been allocated to protect the corroboree frog. This, of course, is a good thing, but just as for our approach to climate change, we need to be developing a more integrated approach to conserving our threatened biota—simply hoping that $60,00 for everything else will be enough is an unwise conservation approach.
The scant funding allocated for these measures is particularly worrying given the large amount of additional funding of $270,000 that has been allocated to maintaining land for biodiversity offsets. It is a shame to see that our appetite for growth is prompting such investment rather than an appreciation of conservation for conservation’s sake.
There are some interesting points in the budget around the Cotter catchment. Additional funding for Parks, Conservation and Lands had been expected and is urgently needed to address fire management, erosion, pest management and illegal activities on the lower Cotter Dam. However, this has not been allocated. This resourcing is critical to protecting the water quality of the enlarged Cotter Dam. I note that, to date, this area has been highly neglected and no new funding has been allocated for it since PCL assumed the forests portfolio.
When it comes to water conservation and management, whilst $750,000 has been allocated to clean up waterways following storms, the budget has not made any significant investment in the forward-looking integrated approach to water management that our watercourses and catchments need. In addition to the water efficiency services that will be lost by ending the outreach and ACTSmart programs, a number of other water measures have been rolled back. This includes a $4 million cut from the north Weston-Molonglo stormwater harvesting scheme, and the $1.8 million assigned to weed management in Lake Burley Griffin has been cut back to $300,000.
Whilst funding has been allocated until 2013-14 for the completion of the inner north component of the Canberra integrated urban waterways project, no funding has been allocated beyond 2012-13 for the accelerated replacement of stormwater drains with wetlands. This is worrying given the many benefits that these projects have already delivered, such as water quality improvements, water savings, flood management and increased local biodiversity. These benefits are why the Greens went to a particular effort to ensure the initiative was a key component of our parliamentary agreement with the government.
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