Page 3161 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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appropriate. The ACT has a well-developed water management strategy that involves all sectors of the community. The early results from this mix of measures are demonstrating the reduced water usage in the ACT. Of course, these measures need to be maintained and evaluated. Other measures under “Think water, act water” will be introduced in the near future.
With regard to our rural sector and the drought, I point out that the ACT rural sector is small by any measure. However, ACT farmers still need to grow crops and pasture. They still need to water and feed their stock and they still need to control weeds and feral animals. They still need to make a living and get a viable return from substantial investments. In this sense, ACT farmers are no different from others elsewhere in the country. Drought does not distinguish between an orchardist in the Riverina, a cattle baron in the Queensland outback or a fat lamb producer in the ACT.
Approximately 16 per cent of the ACT is held under rural lease. Broadacre rural land is a significant landscape element of the territory and contains substantial cultural heritage and nature conservation resources. I have been involved personally in assisting Greening Australia in many plantings on rural leaseholds around the ACT. So far those plantings have been very successful, with a survival rate of somewhere near 80 to 90 per cent. These plantings by Greening Australia and volunteers, up to 500 at a time, will assist those farmers with their water strategies, too.
ACT farmers are an important component of the territory’s firefighting resources. Developing niche industries increasingly contributes to our tourism attractions. The government recognises the ACT rural sector as an integral component of our economic base and land management resources. It is apparent that despite some relief in spring of last year the drought continues. Special arrangements are in place to foster a viable and sustainable rural sector and the government is examining ways to augment assistance measures for rural lessees to help them get through this drought.
The Prime Minister recently announced an extension of exceptional circumstances provisions for the region because of the continuing drought. The ACT government is intent on leading the way through many of these smaller scale initiatives through to major capital works investment in our water infrastructure. But we cannot work in isolation. We are part of a city, part of a region, so we will work with our neighbours to ensure the big-scale projects that secure our water well into the future are also undertaken. It is on all these fronts, at the local, regional and national level that the Stanhope Labor government will continue to lead the way and set the benchmarks for others.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (4.19): Mr Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to speak today, as I believe that securing a sustainable supply of water for the future is a matter of extreme importance. Having only recently assumed the role of shadow minister for water, I was fortunate enough last week to meet and receive a briefing from the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull who, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, has responsibility within the federal government for water. This means that he heads up the recently announced National Office of Water Resources, which, along with other national bodies, will be at the forefront of developing and coordinating a nationwide plan for sustainable water usage.
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