Page 2784 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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It seems to me that the intrinsic value of our parks gets lost if we do not keep at the front of our minds what the objective of our national parks really are—to protect our flora and fauna, our natural environment and cultural heritage. While we, the community, might enjoy appropriate use of our parks—and indeed we should so that we are exposed to their value and their beauty—this is not their primary objective. I would urge the government to revisit these indicators and to seriously consider how they can make a valid assessment of the ecological state of our national parks in particular.
I know, as I touched on earlier, that the environment commissioner is conducting an investigation into the Canberra nature park. I welcome and look forward to that assessment but we must continue to monitor the state of reserves and park areas effectively; otherwise we cannot effectively advocate for the funding they need to be well managed.
I would like to speak about rangers for a moment. We welcome the government’s assurances during estimates hearings that the number of rangers is not going to drop this year but remain concerned that rangers are under pressure. There is not going to be less work and, indeed, concerns in the sector are that parks and conservation staff remain stretched, are spending too much time on administration and that the demands on them will only increase. This is an issue that I look forward to pursuing with the government over the next few months.
I would also like to talk about weed and feral animal management. We know that this is a difficult area and that we can probably always throw more money at this issue. I did put a question on notice to the department about the projected spending on weeds and feral animals for the 2010-11 year and I must say that, while I can appreciate being told that it had not yet been determined and that it would be about the same as last year, it was not especially helpful not to be told what last year’s spending actually was. (Second speaking period taken.)
It is my understanding that there are still some deficiencies in spending on weeds in particular, with the annual spend over the last few years gradually diminishing, and it is clear that we are not getting a hold on our weed problem in the ACT. Rather, it is getting a hold on us. It is not just in the reserves and park areas where this is a problem but it is also a problem in open-space road corridors that are adjacent to reserve areas and seem to just serve as a space for weeds to prosper. Yet information provided by the department to stakeholders has also indicated that the annual hours of ranger time spent on weed management has dropped since 2007.
I would like to spend a little time on one of those nasties, the wasps. In the middle of 2008, the National Parks Association raised concerns with the government that we are seeing an increase in the prevalence of wasps in the ACT, with movement occurring from the urban to the non-urban areas. This problem has not gone away, and wasps are now spreading through Namadgi and have been seen as far away as Gudgenby. Still we have seen no action.
This is a problem because, by the time we get around to funding any work on this, the problem will be a whole lot bigger. And it is not the way to manage pests. We need to
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