Page 3411 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 11 October 1994
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Canberra Nature Park contains wetlands of a different nature. Jerrabomberra Wetlands, for example, on the eastern end of Lake Burley Griffin, provide a specialised habitat for a diversity of waterbird populations. A variety of birds, such as herons, ducks, pelicans, dotterels and plovers, seek refuge and food requirements in this man-engineered habitat. As a resident of Canberra from 1972, I remember that when I first moved in the birds were pretty thin on the ground where I lived, and so was the grass; but in the 20 or so years during which the suburb has developed there is much more activity in birdlife. Quite often you see birds which are associated with those wetlands flying overhead, and I am sure that they will be enjoyed by the generations of the future. The Jerrabomberra Wetlands are also an important nesting site for Latham's snipe, which is subject to an international treaty between the Australian and Chinese governments for the protection of migratory birds.
You can see from all of these aspects that both Canberra Nature Park and Namadgi National Park are integral parts of what makes Canberra the bush capital. My colleagues will speak in particular about the value of these areas to the ACT economy, and Mrs Grassby will point out the cultural heritage values in these areas.
MR STEFANIAK (3.43): Whilst this is very much a motherhood statement by Mr Berry, it certainly is important in terms of Canberra's image and tourism for Canberra. This is such a blatantly bipartisan matter that one can only reiterate that Canberra Nature Park and Namadgi are terribly important for the concept of Canberra as the bush capital. I will raise a few points about where I think the current Labor Government can make some improvements in terms of developing the concept of the bush capital - things which it seems to be having some difficulty in doing.
Before I do, Mr Berry made one comment about what a great job Labor governments had done, and what conservative governments had not done. Some of the greatest advancements in environment protection occurred under the Fraser Government. As Mr Humphries indicated, we saw such things as Fraser Island being saved, and Kakadu. The Fraser Government was a milestone government in terms of the protection of the environment in this country, and a number of things continue to flow from that. The good work of that government was taken up by its replacement, the Hawke Government. It had a very proud record in terms of the environment. Really, it is good to see the environment becoming more and more of a bipartisan issue. I think the Fraser Government had a lot to do with Namadgi National Park as well.
Mr Wood: No. It was Tom Uren, actually.
MR STEFANIAK: Did he? The Fraser Government did quite a bit there as well, I think you will find, Mr Wood.
Madam Speaker, there are a number of things which can be done, I think, to assist tourism in Namadgi and to encourage a greater appreciation of our natural resources in Canberra. This Government really does have a lot to learn because a number of things that it has done in recent times have made it very difficult to properly develop, in terms of tourism, the natural beauty of Canberra. There was a problem with MudMaps, run by
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