Page 916 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 April 2014
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Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment; and the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate, including ACTION, ACT Public Cemeteries Authority and the Animal Welfare Authority.
The committee held five public hearings and heard from 38 witnesses from the Economic Development Directorate, the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate and the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, as well as the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and his staff.
Fifty-seven questions were taken on notice, which were all responded to promptly and are available on the committee’s web page. The committee made 28 recommendations in a range of areas, including environmental programs, land development and land release, services provided by ACTION and further development of road projects and cycling infrastructure. During its deliberation a majority of the committee could not agree on only five proposed recommendations and these have been included in the committee’s report as footnotes.
Finally, on behalf of the committee I would like to thank ACT government ministers and directorate officials, the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and agency officials for their contribution to this inquiry and for their timely return of answers to questions taken on notice. Also I would like to thank Margie Morrison for her good work on this report and congratulate her on her permanent appointment to the secretary’s position. I commend the report to the Assembly.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (10.12): I too want to extend my thanks to the secretary, Ms Margie Morrison, who did a superb job throughout the process and also to the support given by Mr John Croker and Mr Matthew Ghirardello. There are a couple of recommendations that I want to make specific mention of in my remarks now. In particular, I mention recommendation 21, which states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government investigate options for minor renovations to the Mt Rogers Community Hub to improve security, safety and usability of the facility.
I think this is a particularly important recommendation. Those familiar with the facility would be aware that there are numerous issues with the ongoing operations of the buildings. I hope that the government sees this recommendation as an opportunity to revisit those issues. I also draw to the Assembly’s attention recommendation 19, which states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government implement a credit card direct debit capability for land tax and rates.
It seems interesting that for many other payments in the territory there is a direct debit capability for credit cards, but not on rates and land tax. Given many people pay those quarterly, and given that I imagine the majority, if not the vast majority, would use a credit card, I think that the government would receive far more timely payments if there was a direct debit capability for land tax and rates notices.
The next recommendation I want to draw to people’s attention is recommendation 25, which states:
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