Page 1747 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 17 October 1989
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Nonetheless, with respect to this paper, members will recall that the Chief Minister attended a two-day conference in Perth in July, at which on the first day planning Ministers met and discussed issues common to them and on the second day heritage Ministers similarly met and similarly discussed matters of interest to them. It goes without saying that this Government faces a fairly major test in both these areas.
Since this paper was produced in this place the Government has released a major document setting out proposals of its own for coordinating a planning and heritage policy for the ACT. The timeliness of that is welcomed, even though the details at this stage may not be. I hope the Government takes advantage of opportunities presented by this conference to incorporate the experience of other States in ensuring that a sensible policy is put in place. I know that already the Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment has been asked to comment on that paper, as indeed have other committees of the Assembly. We have made a fairly general set of comments on those, which I understand the Chief Minister will receive shortly, if she has not already received it.
I repeat simply one aspect of this debate in the heritage area which I think is important to bear in mind. It is vitally important that the Government allays as quickly as possible the concerns of people about the situation with heritage assets in the Territory. There are some who still fear the consequences of changes in this area, be they people who own potential heritage assets but who do not wish to be included in the heritage register or people who are concerned that certain assets in the Territory may not be included in the register and might be lost to developers or by other changes in planning rules.
I hope the Government does follow up the steps it has already taken to ensure that these issues are addressed quickly. The Chief Minister, in her statement on 4 July said:
It is a priority of the ACT Government to establish a heritage action program, and the views of the relevant Legislative Assembly committees will be sought on these matters.
I assume that is what she did when she wrote to the Assembly members and the chairmen of committees. She also said:
I intend to monitor, with considerable interest, actions elsewhere in Australia to nominate places to the World Heritage List.
That debate is boiling up in a very active sense in places like Tasmania at the moment. She went on to say:
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