Page 2781 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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culled each year, as it is a distasteful notion that we are killing some of our wildlife to protect other valued native areas and creatures.
The Greens also welcome the small increase in the number of rangers dedicated to look after our parks—one extra for the rural parks, one extra for Tidbinbilla and one extra for all the parks and reserves across Canberra. It seems timely given that the workloads for rangers are almost certainly increasing and there has been no increase in the number of rangers over the past five years. However, with the government’s commitment to expand the nature reserve system in the ACT, which we hope they will be delivering on, staffing in Parks, Conservation and Lands will need to be reviewed again next year in order to ensure that land management regimes are able to be fully implemented.
We note that the 19 rangers that are employed to look after the north and south districts of parks and reserves are spread across a very wide area and undertake a diverse range of tasks as they not only service the Canberra nature park, our grassland reserves, Mulligans Flat sanctuary and Jerrabomberra wetlands, but also manage all of our town and district parks, playgrounds and skate parks right across Canberra. This is quite a load for this number of people to manage, especially when events in our parks and gardens can draw rangers away from reserve management throughout the year.
The management of our urban parks requires very different skills from the management of grasslands and native reserves—identification of particular weeds, native and non-native, ensuring appropriate mowing regimes are undertaken, and the like. I note that most of the rangers that are employed in Parks, Conservation and Lands have environmental science and resource management qualifications. It may be appropriate, particularly in light of the environment commissioner’s report this year into grasslands, that the government consider, as part of the PCL team, a specialised team of grassland managers that can focus on implementing the findings of the commissioner’s report as well as managing the ACT’s woodland areas.
It is clear that some of the grassland areas that were surveyed by the commissioner have been inappropriately managed until now. And while not all areas are the responsibility of Parks, Conservation and Lands, the Greens believe there may well be merit in ensuring that there are specialised rangers who are trained in the management of the highly valued grasslands and woodlands that the ACT is lucky to have within its urban and rural areas.
I would like to note and acknowledge the department’s comprehensive program on weed and feral animal management—programs for the management of wild dogs, pigs, feral horses and rabbits, including extra funding for rabbit management and funding for the predator-free sanctuary at Mulligans Flat. It is clear that the ACT will never be able to rest on its laurels in regard to feral animal and weed management.
One of the challenges of this budget was the way in which the information was presented and the lack of detail about program spending that was in the budget papers. This is an opportune time to point out the difficulties that that creates for those of us who are charged in this place with keeping the government accountable on how the public’s money is spent. I note that the estimates committee report comments:
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