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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 165 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Leave granted.

MR CORBELL: I move:

The Labor Party will be supporting this motion this morning. Perhaps it is the Chief Minister's lucky day. She is going to see a Labor opposition criticise a potential decision - I should stress "a potential decision" - of a Labor government. That is the important point - the New South Wales Labor Government has not made a decision on this very important issue. So now is an appropriate opportunity for the Canberra community, through the representatives in this Assembly, to express a view.

Why is it important to express a view? It is important because this issue affects an area which is dear to the hearts of many Canberrans. Indeed, it is dear to the hearts of a great majority of Canberrans. Any one of us who has visited and enjoyed the natural environment of the south coast will understand the importance of this issue. I am sure that the environment Minister will join me in those sentiments when, hopefully, he rises in the debate later this morning.

The issue of the south coast forests and the regional forest agreement is an important one. The proposal put forward by Ms Tucker asks this Assembly to support the proposal which protects the 15 community reserves developed by the South East Forest Alliance. Last year when Ms Tucker moved this motion the Labor Party achieved an adjournment of it. We did that because we felt this was a complex issue that deserved to be properly considered by this place rather than dealt with within a 24-hour period. The Labor Party has had that opportunity and we have considered this issue to be one worthy of support.

What are the 15 community reserves? They are reserves that cover the areas of Greater Murramarang, Monga, Greater Conjola, and Badja to name just a couple. They are reserves which would cover an area of 205,000 hectares and they would comprise approximately 180,000 hectares of state forest, 22,000 hectares of vacant Crown land and 1,800 hectares of flora reserve.

They are reserves which would protect important catchments of the Clyde River above the town of Nelligen, an area with which most Canberrans would be familiar on their journey down to the coast. It would also protect vital areas of the escarpment along the Great Dividing Range in from the coast itself. This would be an area of over 300 kilometres, the largest possible stretch available for protection if it were put into place. That is the largest possible stretch in Australia along the Great Dividing Range.

An example of areas which are dealt with in this proposal is the coastline between Ulladulla and Bawley Point, an area where many Canberrans enjoy their holidays. It is an area known as Five Lakes, an area of extremely high conservation value. It would protect the delicate and unique area of lakes such as Willinga, Meroo, Termeil, Tabourie and Burrill. These are all lakes which are extremely familiar names to Canberrans and these are all areas which are under threat of logging if the proposal for community reserves developed along an option developed by the New South Wales Government is not implemented.

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