Page 1893 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.39): I am very pleased to support this motion today and to support the notion of Canberra and Wellington becoming sister cities. Last month when the Wellington delegation visited, I had the opportunity to have some discussions with the mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, and meet some of the other members of the delegation. There is no doubt that there is real energy between our two cities to create greater partnerships, to do more together. There is a real sense of opportunity. As members have touched on today, we are similar cities, and I am pleased that people are seeing that as an opportunity rather than a point of competition. There are things that we can share with each other, that we can benefit from. We can build our respective strengths whilst at the same time building ourselves. There is no doubt that the energy and the synergies that are there will create a range of opportunities.
Clearly the arrival of direct international flights is a major boon to this relationship. As a Greens member of this place, for me there is, of course, a dilemma around the issue of flying, in the sense that we know that increased flights lead to increased greenhouse emissions, and emissions of planes are particularly sensitive in the impact they have—just their physical distribution. Nonetheless, it is clear that the arrival of direct international flights is a boon. It will open up a range of new opportunities, and we must make the most of that, always being mindful to only take the flights that we need to.
One of the interesting things that has not been discussed today is the Zealandia nature sanctuary in Wellington. This is very similar to our Mulligans Flat sanctuary where a large predator-proof fence has been built. I know that Mr Gentleman went there just last month and is wearing their special commemorative tie today to mark that. They have done a similar thing to what we have done at Mulligans Flat. They have built a predator-proof fence and brought back species that were extinct on the main islands of New Zealand as a result of predation and could only be found on the outer islands. So there are some interesting opportunities to compare our science as well. We are doing some very exciting things here at Mulligans Flat in the ACT. New Zealand is conducting some similarly interesting experiments. The potential for connection between those two pieces of fantastic science is just another of the opportunities that exist between our two cities.
I am very pleased to support this motion today. I will be going to Wellington myself next month to attend a corrections ministers meeting and I am looking to further some of the opportunities between our two cities as well.
MS FITZHARRIS (Molonglo—Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research, Minister for Transport and Municipal Services and Assistant Minister for Health) (10.41): I rise to make a special comment about this wonderful proposal put forward by the Chief Minister. For me it has special significance, because Wellington is the city in which I was born; it is the city where my parents both went to high school, where they both did their training, as a policeman and a nurse, and where they were married; and it is the city where my sister and I were born and went to school.
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