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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 993 ..

in the context of not only the lifetimes of the animals that depend on it but also our own lifetimes.

I congratulate the Conder landcare group for their work in the 4A area to remove weeds and restore the wetlands near Tom Roberts Avenue. Volunteers are part of the backbone of ACT’s nature conservation work force. Without these dedicated people, the ecosystems in our urban nature parks would be losing the battle against weeds and soil erosion. So I commend those hardworking and dedicated people who are caring for our bush, and thank them for safeguarding our ecosystem for future generations.

Finally, I would like to reflect a little on what Mr Hargreaves has said. He said that there had been a celebration when the Conder project was formally opened—a celebration for all the work that had been done and the outcomes achieved. But at the same time I think we should reflect on and lament the loss of trees in Belconnen. Just last week in Belconnen we saw some yellow box/red gum trees being sawn down, despite the hard work by the community in Belconnen. I dread to think what will happen to the red gums—just around the corner in Belconnen—that are waiting for the auction on 16 March. It seems that we are looking after one bit of nature over here—biodiversity, ecodiversity and endangered woodlands—so we don’t have to look after this bit of nature over there. We need to look at our reserve system, the value of lowland grassy woodlands and the development that takes place. We should be encouraging development but we should respect the environment and the fact that it has taken hundreds of years for these trees to grow.

I hope the government’s positive announcement that it will include Conder 4A in the Canberra Nature Park heralds the start of future announcements of protection of further areas of woodland that are currently threatened by urban development.

MRS DUNNE (4.14): This is an important motion. I am glad to see that Mr Hargreaves’s care factor about issues relating to the environment has increased somewhat from his usual conversations. In many ways this is an attempt by the Labor Party to redeem its green credentials.

I take the point that Ms Dundas made about the Nettlefold Street trees. When we were at Nettlefold Street a week or so ago observing the trees being cut down, there were many people there who said, “So much for the green credentials of the Labor Party.” The message we are getting from talking to the community is that the green credentials of the Labor Party are very much up for grabs at the moment. They came into office promising to do many things but have reneged on many or gone down different paths. For instance, we are still languishing over the proposals for O’Malley, waiting for a final variation of the Territory Plan. It had been called for by this place before the land was sold so that people could have a clear delineation between what was residential land and what was to become the nature park. There are many aspects of what has been done by this government that leave us concerned. The selling out of the Conservation Council over the cat-free zones last week is another one of those issues.

To come back to the case in point, we should support this motion and, in doing so, note the involvement of members of this place during the previous Assembly and their attempts to work with the community to establish these wetlands. I applaud the government for following in the steps of the previous government by putting more land

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