Page 3350 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 1994

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... that the current policy which does not allow the issue of permits for the culling of kangaroos be modified to provide for the issue of such permits where:

(a) it is established that a particular species of kangaroo is present in such numbers that they pose an economic threat to leaseholders or are a danger to public road traffic in the ACT;

(b) culling poses no threat to public safety; and

Madam Speaker, I know that the Minister has referred the issue to two of his community advisory committees for their consideration. However, I urge the Minister to address this important issue as soon as possible.

Bushfire threat, droughts and the resulting problems are temporary in one way, but they are serious issues that this Government must continue to face with the community and develop workable strategies to deal with. The ongoing environmental work which involves long-term planning, constant development and improvement remains with our community always. I encourage the Government and the Minister to continue all of the efforts in this area. Doing this will see the ACT well prepared for the twenty-first century.

MR STEFANIAK (4.46): While listening to Ms Ellis I was reminded of a book I read a couple of months ago. If you want to get a point across and perhaps criticise someone, you do it in three ways. You start off with something positive, then you come to the criticism, and you end with something positive. I think, in fairness to the Government, that when one talks about the environment that is appropriate. On behalf of the Minister, the State of the Environment Report - a nice glossy publication - has been produced and tabled in this Assembly. It is, I suppose, a reasonable start. I was pleased to see the Environment Commissioner, Joe Baker, say that the next report will be a lot more critical and will beat the Government about the head on things it has not done. I suppose, in fairness to the Government, that producing this report is a start, even though there could be more substance in it and more critical bits and pieces, because there are certain things that this Government has not addressed and which it needs to address.

In relation to some of the problems, I suppose that it is proper to read in full the press release of the Conservation Council of the South-East Region and Canberra Inc. It deals with the environment report. I would not go as far as querying the Minister's competency, because I have always found the Minister interested in the environment. Whilst there are a lot of things he could do better, I would not necessarily say that he is incompetent. I think what the report says should be put on the record. I quote:

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