Page 3117 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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prescribed burns to reduce fuel loads. We will upgrade the existing fire trail network in the northern clear range and Naas Valley fire trails in Namadgi National Park so the heavy tankers and earthmoving machinery needed for fire suppression and hazard reduction have access. Fire control lines will be constructed to help us protect the Cotter catchment, Bendora water supply and dam infrastructure, bogs and fens—including the internationally listed Ginini Flats wetland complex—threatened species and significant heritage sites. Closer to the city’s edge, the parks and conservation service undertakes extensive fire management activities. Techniques include grazing, slashing, prescribed burning, vegetation control and fire trail maintenance.
In the 2017-18 budget and program, the government will continue to protect native species and their habitat through environmental improvement work, and the budget provides for measures to tackle environmental issues and protect nature reserves in the ACT. The eradication of exotic pests and diseases and the protection of our native species through initiatives such as weed control are crucial to environmental protection.
To further guard against the spread of pests and diseases, the government is improving biosecurity controls at the Canberra international airport. This includes funding to develop enhanced capacity and capability to respond to the higher risk of exotic pests and disease incursions following the introduction of international flights in the ACT. This funding will boost the existing baseline funding for invasive weed control to $2.1 million a year, allowing us to meet the goals of the ACT weed strategy 2009-19.
Our territory is steeped in Indigenous, European, natural and geological history. This heritage is protected by ACT heritage and the heritage council. The importance of acknowledging and protecting our heritage is showcased each year by the hugely successful Canberra and Region Heritage Festival, which attracted more than 20,000 people this year, and the Canberra Tracks program of self-drive tours of heritage sites. Through the better infrastructure fund the government has committed $50,000 to upgrade and expand the Canberra Tracks app and signage in recognition of the track’s popularity. In addition, $86,000 has been allocated to develop a conservation management plan for the Aboriginal heritage places managed by the parks and conservation service.
More than $350,000 is available for the annual heritage grants program which supports a wide range of community projects that protect our heritage places and objects. The grants are the primary source of funding for individuals and community organisations to record, conserve and celebrate the history and heritage of the ACT.
The planning and land management portfolio has a very wide remit, from developing planning policy at ACT-wide level to policy around land supply, urban renewal, civil infrastructure, affordable housing and building. It implements the Territory Plan and houses the office of the surveyor-general and land information, the asbestos response task force and the public housing renewal task force.
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