Page 1707 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 June 2014
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Defenders Office and other community legal centres that we know provide an enormous role in plugging the gaps for people who cannot afford access to private legal services but who need legal support. We know community legal centres return a significant payback to government and the community by providing those services, and figures show that for every dollar invested in the community legal sector there is a significant benefit derived in avoided legal costs and disputes and other issues.
As Dr Bourke mentioned, we have seen over half a billion dollars being removed from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs. Again, there is a real lack of clarity about policy directions on exactly where the axe is going to fall and how the stated position of the Prime Minister to want to significantly close the gap and enhance the life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians sits with the very significant funding cuts. Again, the people I am talking to in the community are uncertain about where this is going and what it will mean for key service providers like Winnunga, which we know delivers significant services to vulnerable members of the ACT community, not just Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of the community but right across the board.
The long view the government has taken includes considering how we will look after the environment for current and future generations, and that goes to the second of my amendments. This budget maintains a range of environmental programs conducted through both the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate and the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate. These include doing work on planning for infill in our urban zone so that we reduce our footprint or at least stop it continuing to expand so that we have a city that benefits from the natural environment that is both around and within Canberra.
The budget also recognises other areas of environmental work, including in my portfolio funding for implementation of the plan for matters of national environmental significance in the Molonglo Valley. The Molonglo national environment significance plan, or NES plan, 2011 is an agreement with the commonwealth government which details the ACT’s government commitment to protect matters of national environmental significance in the Molonglo Valley. These are the pink-tailed worm-lizard, natural temperate grassland, swift and superb parrots and yellow box red gum grassy woodland.
It is important that the ACT work with the commonwealth government to look after these matters of national environmental significance for both Australia and for the ACT. It is my very firm view that the commonwealth government has an ongoing responsibility to work with the states and territories to protect endangered and threatened species and habitats. The ACT is fortunate to have some of these species and habitats, and it is incumbent on us to protect and enhance them for current and future generations. We are certainly seeing from the commonwealth government a withdrawal from this space and abrogation of responsibility for the environment and for playing a federal role in looking after matters of national environmental significance. This needs to be a partnership and it is vital that the commonwealth government has an ongoing role in this space.
There is considerable detail about the work to be undertaken over the next four years under the Molonglo area national environmental significance plan: a range of
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