Page 3697 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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I also want to say that I have been very pleased in the past 12 months to be able to bring a Greens perspective to a range of discussions, and that remains important. Members will know that one of the criticisms I receive sometimes is that I am only one of 17 in this place, and that is true. But the Greens received over 25,000 votes at the last ACT election. That is a substantial proportion of the Canberra community, and it is quite appropriate that those people who voted for my party are represented in this place and that the ideals and policies they voted for—the fully costed policies, I remind members—are brought to this place on a regular basis.
A series of specific achievements and areas of progress have already been rolled out from the parliamentary agreement. I am particularly pleased with the additional funding to enhance our management of biodiversity in the ACT. This is one of those issues that perhaps is not on the front page of the newspaper every day but one where we have a significant duty of custodianship over our natural environment. Mr Doszpot spoke at some length in his discussion of Kingston this morning about Canberra as the bush capital and all of the parks. He did not actually mention any of the nature parks; he only focused on the man-made European-style parks, but, nonetheless, the natural parks are also an important asset of this city and a critical part of the bush capital heritage we have inherited, and we have a job to look after that. Through the addition of some park ranger positions and additional funding for things like rabbit control, that custodianship, that duty we have to maintain those important natural spaces, will be carried forward in a more effective way.
I am particularly pleased we have seen an enhancement of capacity to support our Parkcare groups. This is a good example of government working in partnership with the community. Those Parkcare co-ordinators significantly amplify the work that government could achieve on its own. Many people around this city are keen to volunteer in the parks and have good expertise and good experience, and I am determined to make sure we have a strong partnership between the Parks and Conservation Service and those Parkcare volunteers so that everybody is working to the same goal and that we are utilising the best strengths of each of those parties—the volunteers who usually are out there on the weekends and can do certain tasks and then the rangers who can bring along heavier equipment and do certain activities. Having enhanced capacity there for Parkcare co-ordination is particularly beneficial for the city.
Dr Bourke, if I recall correctly, mentioned light rail. This is obviously very important to the Greens. We certainly were talking about it extensively last term, and I am very pleased to see that it is now a key commitment of the partnership between the Labor Party and the Greens. This project will make a tremendous difference to the future of this city at a whole lot of levels. It is a transport project—it is about delivering transport alternatives—but it is also an economic project to drive economic growth in this city. We have spoken in this place before about some of those potential opportunities that arise from conglomeration of small businesses around the transport hubs. It is something we are already seeing in a funny way in the light industrial area of Braddon. If you can imagine that actually taking place along a transport corridor, that is the sort of economic diversification and opportunity that light rail has the potential to bring to this city, as well as others.
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