Page 4448 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 November 2005
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implementation in the planned suburbs of a program based on the principles of cat containment.
The committee has also considered the relationship between wildlife corridors and the proposed Canberra international arboretum and gardens. It is clear that the arboretum has a big role to play in the protection of endangered flora and fauna and that the construction of this arboretum concept, especially given the successful tender for the 100 gardens/100 forests, will mean that awareness of endangered species will be a focus, something we can all be proud of.
This inquiry process was not without tough decisions, and all members of the committee were forced to balance the merits of economics and environmental considerations in order to reach a decision. However, the scientists assembled at the international conference on biodiversity, science and governance in Paris, in January 2005, agreed:
The primary causes underlying the loss of biodiversity are demographic, economic, and institutional factors, including increasing demands for land and biological resources due to the growth in the human population, world production, consumption, and trade, associated with a failure of people and markets to take into account the long-term consequences of environmental change and the full array of biodiversity values.
This is the challenge before the ACT government. I quote further from this report of the conference in Paris:
This biodiversity, which is the product of more than 3 billion years of evolution, is an irreplaceable natural heritage and a vital resource, upon which humankind depends in many different ways.
In conclusion, I support Mr Gentleman’s conclusions that he brought earlier about this report. It presents a fair and balanced compromise that reflects the committee’s commitment to the development of Canberra in both an economic and environmental sense. I am delighted to join with him in commending the report to the Assembly. I thank Hanna Jaireth, the secretary to the committee.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.35): This is an important variation to the territory plan in relation to the suburbs to our very north and the impacts that they may have on the Goorooyarroo nature reserve. It is an important issue, but more important than the issue itself are the issues raised by Mr Seselja about the process. One of the things that we have seen a lot of in this Assembly is the complete disregard for proper process in this place.
As a former chairman of the planning and environment committee, I can say that the account that Mr Seselja gave today of the attitude of the chairman of the planning and environment committee is unprecedented and unprofessional. The fact that a 78-page chairman’s draft might appear on someone’s desk on Friday and then, on a sitting day, they rush through a brief meeting to sign it off is an entirely unprofessional way for an impartial chairman of a committee in this place to behave. And it says a great deal about the way many of the committees of this place work and about how this member works in this place. This member seems to think that, when he is on a committee, his job is to do
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