Page 5446 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
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(3) resolves that the Standing Committee on Environment and Transport and City Services shall report back to the Assembly on whether the ACT should have a mammal emblem and a recommendation on what that should be by September 2018.
This motion seeks to conduct an inquiry into the adoption of a mammal emblem for the territory by the Standing Committee on Environment and Transport and City Services. Members may or may not be aware that the ACT is in fact the only state or territory without a mammal emblem, after Tasmania formally proclaimed the Tasmanian devil in May 2015. In 1996, when this place considered the adoption of a floral and faunal emblem, they were first considered by a standing committee, so requesting the Standing Committee on Environment and Transport and City Services to consider the question of a mammal emblem follows the precedent set in 1996.
I know this issue is something that some in the community are very interested in; others perhaps less so. That is why I think it is important to undertake a community consultation process to inform the committee’s consideration of what the territory’s mammal emblem should be. I should acknowledge in this context the work of Jamie Travers at the ABC, and indeed the ABC Breakfast program, who have already begun a community discussion on this matter.
I look forward to hearing the views of the community and the outcomes of the committee’s consideration should the Assembly support this resolution today. I commend it to the chamber.
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (4.30): I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this motion to the Assembly, to give me a chance to spruik our wildlife, since I have had the great pleasure of coming across a lot of them in my capacity as shadow minister for the environment.
The Chief Minister has highlighted the fact that the ACT, unlike any other state or territory, is without a mammal emblem. We are certainly well known as the bush capital in Australia and beyond, and our bird and floral emblems are very recognisable.
The royal bluebell is a delightful choice for a floral emblem. It is very pretty and subtle. I personally think that that, along with the New South Wales waratah, are the two best floral emblems in all of the states and territories. It has nothing to do with the fact that I grew up in Sydney and have now called Canberra home for the past 20 years.
As the Chief Minister has pointed out, New South Wales has the platypus, Queensland has nabbed the koala as their own, South Australia has the hairy-nosed wombat, Tasmania the Tasmanian devil, WA the numbat, Victoria the Leadbeater’s possum and the Northern Territory the red kangaroo. So I am not sure why the ACT does not already have one.
When we look at the potential candidates for such an honour, we have a very large number of mammals and many of them would be very suitable candidates. The
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