Page 2442 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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Orroral Tors is a particularly short but spectacular walk with huge boulders and caves along the ridge, right where the proposed fire trail line is drawn. I really look forward to hearing the government’s decision about that as I know that it went very quiet after protests by some groups.
Another national parks issue that I must raise relates to a lack of funds for rangers. In last year’s budget we saw drastic cuts to parks, conservation and land ranger services and, despite the surplus, there are no funds. (Second speaking period taken.) We are losing experienced staff through this lack of foresight. The government is happy to spend large amounts, or it seems to be happy to spend large amounts, on funding fire trails, but at the same time it is cutting funds to maintain the employment of trained, experienced fire-fighting rangers.
Where is the logic? What is important to the government—destroying wilderness values to put in roads that hopefully will require little use, or maintaining good staff to ensure good management, including wildfire prevention measures in our only national park? While we are talking about fire management, another point I would like to raise relates to the urban tree management program. I know that we are all very proud of Canberra being the bush capital and the fact that some of our wildlife pervades even those suburbs that do not border nature reserves.
I am concerned that the general fear of bushfires and an overcautious fear of litigation have brought about an urban tree management policy that fells old trees once they start dropping branches rather than just paying attention to branches that need lopping for fear of public liability issues and rather than allowing trees to senescence gracefully, creating a habitat for tree-dwelling animals, in particular, birds, bats and possums. It is important to have trees in a variety of age ranges. I would be keen to see more detail on the government’s tree replacement policies as the little information we gleaned from the minister during estimates was not very helpful.
The 2006-07 financial year was a sad one for public libraries in Canberra, with the closing of Griffith library and the Civic library move and subsequent flood, which resulted in it being closed from January to June. I hope that government funding for libraries continues to ensure an up-to-date accessible library service and that no more library closures are in the pipeline. In the past year we also saw a number of government shopfronts and services close or move, such as the Registrar-General and the Office of Fair Trading, from Civic to Fyshwick.
I still get asked where the government shopfront is in Civic and I have to explain that Dickson is now the closest one. I feel particularly sorry when I have to tell people who caught a bus into Civic to do their business. I have heard stories of people waiting hours for their turn at those shopfronts that remain open. Again, I hope that the government has finished the job of making government services more inaccessible. From here on I hope that existing shopfronts are well supported and play a role in engaging with the community on all manner of issues. I urge the government to reconsider and re-establish the shopfront in Civic, the place that drew most people because of its planning policies.
The estimates process gave us no insight into the future of Albert Hall. It is clear that the government is halfway through a tender process that does not guarantee that
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