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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4179 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

The Environment Protection Bill contains very good initiatives that provide incentives for industry to improve their environmental performance, but the Bill must be effectively administered and the conditions must be effectively enforced. The proposed Environment Management Authority has wide discretion to impose conditions on industry. I must stress that this authority must be given sufficient resources to undertake the task effectively. At present, for example, there are only four environment protection inspectors covering the whole of the ACT, and I believe that that is inadequate. One way of ensuring that industry and the Government meet their environmental responsibilities in this regard is to have an active and aware population that monitors the implementation of this Bill. The community must be able to participate in the development of environment protection policies. They must have access to information about how the Act is being administered, and they must be able to instigate their own actions to stop polluting activities.

The Bill initially had some deficiencies in this area which we, as a committee, have now addressed and improved. I am very proud and very pleased to have been involved in improving the Bill that now will be passing through this house. The Bill sets a framework for environmental protection, but the implementation and resourcing of this Bill is the critical issue here. We have ensured that public participation in the working of this Bill is strong. That is absolutely appropriate because the whole idea is to build a partnership between government, business and the public to protect our most valuable asset, the environment. I am very happy that the Assembly will be reviewing this Act two years after gazettal. I am sure that over time there will be many amendments and modifications to this legislation, and the regulations as well, as we continue to improve standards for the protection and enhancement of the environment.

MR MOORE (8.37): Mr Speaker, to avoid needless repetition, I will draw attention, first of all, to the fact that most of my comments on this Environment Protection Bill 1997 were made when I tabled the report of the inquiry into the Bill last week, and I think those comments remain valid.

Since that time there has been a further round table discussion which a couple of members alluded to, and in that discussion final compromises were made. Through all the discussions it is my observation that the ACT public servants responsible for this legislation acted in the most professional way. I see my colleagues nodding agreement. I think they deserve acknowledgment because they are the ones who have carried this through. The Government's intentions were clear and the committee's intentions were clear, but they really took the carriage of the detail and carried it through. I would like to say congratulations to those bureaucrats - I use the term without in any sense being pejorative - because I think it reflects a very rapidly improving pride in our ACT Public Service, and, judging by the people that we had to deal with through this process, it is a well-deserved pride.

The duty and environmental obligations that this legislation will place on the community will, I believe, be welcomed by the vast majority of people. I think the legislation will reflect its own objects, and the most important of those is to protect and enhance the quality of the Territory environment. That is the leading object of the Act. Mr Speaker, we can be very proud of the action being taken here tonight to protect the environment not only for ourselves but also for the next generation and the generation after that,

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