Page 2477 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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It is funny that we have not heard a reason for not doing it. There is no reason given why this cannot go ahead and cannot go ahead immediately. We had a motion early last year saying, ‘let us do it.” Everybody agreed that the government was going to consider it some more. We had the shuffle. We have got the new AAs. We have got the sixth minister. There is extra capacity for this to happen, and if you cannot choose between Mr Corbell and Mr Rattenbury you could have quite easily given it to Mr Gentleman. No, you did not take that opportunity.
What you now ask for is another four or five months to be able to consider this and report on your deliberations on the last sitting day in 2014. So you are not going to give us a decision. You are going to come back here and tell us what your deliberations have been. There you go. As Ms Lawder so accurately portrayed, there is a cosmetic split coming here sometime in the election year so that the Chief Minister and the Greens can fake a break-up so that they can each go to the next election with their own agenda.
But the problem is that the environment suffers in the interim, because you do not have an integrated approach to this. You do not have a single conservation agency and you are not achieving better integration of biodiversity policy, planning, research and management. And the community wants that. Many members of the community have said to me, “When is this going to happen?” I have outlined what we have done and said, “It is all up to the Chief Minister.” There is a lot of angst out there that better integration is not occurring and that better outcomes are not being achieved for the community.
Mr Hanson: More angst in here than outside, though, maybe.
MR SMYTH: Maybe over there. But all we get from the Chief Minister is that the AAs are a step in the right direction and then, in a disparaging tone, that anyone would dare try to achieve something better for the environment of the ACT. But the question is: why is it so hard? Why is it so hard that you cannot make a decision—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Dr Bourke): Mr Smyth, would you please address your remarks to the chair.
MR SMYTH: Why is it so hard, Mr Assistant Speaker, that the Chief Minister cannot make this decision? You have to look at the internal politics of the benches over there. The answer is apparent. It is quite clear. This is a failure of leadership. You have just changed the AAs. It could have been accommodated—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, I remind you to address your remarks to the chair.
MR SMYTH: Yes, Mr Assistant Speaker. This is a failure of leadership of the Chief Minister, through you, Mr Assistant Speaker, and it is a failure that is obvious to all. To stand there and move an amendment asking for another four or five months to consider and then to simply suggest that she will report on her deliberations shows that there is something wrong in the abilities of the Chief Minister to make what is fundamentally a simple decision.
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