Ms CARTER - 2000-05-11
Recently the Labor Party released its position paper on recreational fishing. It states that Darwin Harbour requires a proper planning and management regime. This is a contradiction to what you have recently said here in the House. Could you please provide us with the facts?
Ms Martin: Oh, you have a plan of management for the harbour? Well done!
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, that is a great question. I will just pick up on that interjection from the Leader of the Opposition that we have a plan of management for the harbour. It is obvious to me that the major statement that I delivered at the last sittings articulated very clearly that we are in the process of developing a strategic plan for the Darwin Harbour.
The Labor position paper on recreational fishing talks a bit about research, and my colleague, the Deputy Chief Minister, just told the House how much the Labor Party is relying on scientific evidence for basing its future policies. I will just quote from this:
Labor is committed to drastically improving the scientific basis for policy decisions by government. The sustainability of species, river closures, harbour decisions, all of these decisions will be made on sound scientific basis.
In my major statement on the harbour during the last sittings I talked about what this government, the CLP government, has been doing over the last 20 years, and on the benchmarking of data that will be needed for further development of Darwin City. Let me give, for the sake of Territorians listening to this broadcast, a quick snapshot of what we have been doing over the last 20 years. 230 studies have been conducted into all aspects of the harbour, its surrounds, the ecosystems, and the land areas. There have been: Detailed surveys of mangroves; detailed surveys and mapping utilising satellite remote sensing; productivity surveys; tidal flows and sediment transportation studies; heavy metal concentration reports; bacterial concentration surveys; and hydrodynamic modelling. There have been 230 studies. I am not going to read them all out, but Labor reckons that we have been neglecting the harbour!
As I said, this CLP government has been benchmarking data in the harbour for the past 20 years. But that is not all. In my statement last sittings I told this House that this government is currently, right now, as we speak, spending tens of thousands of dollars in consultation with all the stakeholders in developing a strategic planning process for Darwin harbour. The title of that plan is the Darwin Harbour Strategic Plan. How more clear can you get about planning for the Darwin harbour?
When it is completed, that plan will provide terrestrial and marine environment links needed for the future development of Darwin. Let me just point out who the stakeholders are in that planning process. They include most of the government agencies, the Chamber of Commerce, Top End Regional Councils Committee, and representatives of local government. It includes AFANT, a representative of the Larrakia people, and also Environment Australia. What more does the Leader of the Opposition want us to do? Scientific evidence is benchmarking data over the last 20 years. There is strategic planning occurring for the harbour, let alone the strategic planning that is going on around the Darwin environment.
The irony of Labor’s policy launch is that they chose to base it purely and simply on a dam that does not exist.
Let’s have a look at whether they are anti-dams. My colleague the minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries has already pointed out their past and current policies of impoundment. If we go back a little bit into a policy that they had in 1994, the Labor Party came up with what they thought was a riveting idea, and they did this without any consultation, without any studies, without any strategic planning, all of the things they harp on for us to do. And what was it? The Labor Party policy in 1994 involved a very grand scheme to dam a portion of the extremely popular Buffalo Creek, and what was that going to do? Impounding Buffalo Creek and swamping the Leanyer area. Covering it with water after damming Buffalo Creek. That was part of their 1994 policy. No consultation, without any planning and certainly without asking the people of Darwin what they thought. What a ridiculous idea.
They talk about protection of mangroves. We can talk about protection of mangroves, we can talk about things like the Charles Darwin National Park. 1800 hectares of mangroves ...
Members interjecting.
Mr Stirling: You liar.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Withdraw that please. The member for Nhulunbuy withdraw.
Mr Stirling: I withdraw the reference to the Chief Minister as being a liar.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Just withdraw without comment.
Mr BALDWIN: The Charles Darwin National Park preserves mangroves in the Darwin Harbour area. Not only that, there are other conservation zones of mangroves in the Darwin Harbour environment. One of them ...
Ms Martin: What about Darwin south ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the Leader of the Opposition just tame it for a short time. I would like to hear the answer to the question. I am finding it very, very difficult with the amount of interjections.
Mr BALDWIN: One of these conservation protection zones that we have put in place, this CLP government has put in place, is a very, very important zone of mangroves. It is adjacent to the connector road, Tiger Brennan Drive. It is the home of the Chestnut Crested Rail, which is an icon for bird watchers around the world. We preserved that under an O3 zoning. Not to be destroyed, not to be touched. But what did Labor do? In their 1994 policy, let me tell you what plans they had for that particular area. I quote out of their policy: ‘Continued development of the area between the Bayview Haven project and Tipperary Wharf, including the limited mangrove area’. They were going to wipe that area out. The home of that very rare bird. The home of the Chestnut Crested Rail. Can you imagine what would have happened after that?
We declared that an open space zone. We protected that very important species of bird. This lot on the other side were going to wipe it out and Territorians should know that. As far as Labor goes, Territorians will tag Labor with telling what? Telling damned lies!
Ms Martin: Oh, you have a plan of management for the harbour? Well done!
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, that is a great question. I will just pick up on that interjection from the Leader of the Opposition that we have a plan of management for the harbour. It is obvious to me that the major statement that I delivered at the last sittings articulated very clearly that we are in the process of developing a strategic plan for the Darwin Harbour.
The Labor position paper on recreational fishing talks a bit about research, and my colleague, the Deputy Chief Minister, just told the House how much the Labor Party is relying on scientific evidence for basing its future policies. I will just quote from this:
Labor is committed to drastically improving the scientific basis for policy decisions by government. The sustainability of species, river closures, harbour decisions, all of these decisions will be made on sound scientific basis.
In my major statement on the harbour during the last sittings I talked about what this government, the CLP government, has been doing over the last 20 years, and on the benchmarking of data that will be needed for further development of Darwin City. Let me give, for the sake of Territorians listening to this broadcast, a quick snapshot of what we have been doing over the last 20 years. 230 studies have been conducted into all aspects of the harbour, its surrounds, the ecosystems, and the land areas. There have been: Detailed surveys of mangroves; detailed surveys and mapping utilising satellite remote sensing; productivity surveys; tidal flows and sediment transportation studies; heavy metal concentration reports; bacterial concentration surveys; and hydrodynamic modelling. There have been 230 studies. I am not going to read them all out, but Labor reckons that we have been neglecting the harbour!
As I said, this CLP government has been benchmarking data in the harbour for the past 20 years. But that is not all. In my statement last sittings I told this House that this government is currently, right now, as we speak, spending tens of thousands of dollars in consultation with all the stakeholders in developing a strategic planning process for Darwin harbour. The title of that plan is the Darwin Harbour Strategic Plan. How more clear can you get about planning for the Darwin harbour?
When it is completed, that plan will provide terrestrial and marine environment links needed for the future development of Darwin. Let me just point out who the stakeholders are in that planning process. They include most of the government agencies, the Chamber of Commerce, Top End Regional Councils Committee, and representatives of local government. It includes AFANT, a representative of the Larrakia people, and also Environment Australia. What more does the Leader of the Opposition want us to do? Scientific evidence is benchmarking data over the last 20 years. There is strategic planning occurring for the harbour, let alone the strategic planning that is going on around the Darwin environment.
The irony of Labor’s policy launch is that they chose to base it purely and simply on a dam that does not exist.
Let’s have a look at whether they are anti-dams. My colleague the minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries has already pointed out their past and current policies of impoundment. If we go back a little bit into a policy that they had in 1994, the Labor Party came up with what they thought was a riveting idea, and they did this without any consultation, without any studies, without any strategic planning, all of the things they harp on for us to do. And what was it? The Labor Party policy in 1994 involved a very grand scheme to dam a portion of the extremely popular Buffalo Creek, and what was that going to do? Impounding Buffalo Creek and swamping the Leanyer area. Covering it with water after damming Buffalo Creek. That was part of their 1994 policy. No consultation, without any planning and certainly without asking the people of Darwin what they thought. What a ridiculous idea.
They talk about protection of mangroves. We can talk about protection of mangroves, we can talk about things like the Charles Darwin National Park. 1800 hectares of mangroves ...
Members interjecting.
Mr Stirling: You liar.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Withdraw that please. The member for Nhulunbuy withdraw.
Mr Stirling: I withdraw the reference to the Chief Minister as being a liar.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Just withdraw without comment.
Mr BALDWIN: The Charles Darwin National Park preserves mangroves in the Darwin Harbour area. Not only that, there are other conservation zones of mangroves in the Darwin Harbour environment. One of them ...
Ms Martin: What about Darwin south ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the Leader of the Opposition just tame it for a short time. I would like to hear the answer to the question. I am finding it very, very difficult with the amount of interjections.
Mr BALDWIN: One of these conservation protection zones that we have put in place, this CLP government has put in place, is a very, very important zone of mangroves. It is adjacent to the connector road, Tiger Brennan Drive. It is the home of the Chestnut Crested Rail, which is an icon for bird watchers around the world. We preserved that under an O3 zoning. Not to be destroyed, not to be touched. But what did Labor do? In their 1994 policy, let me tell you what plans they had for that particular area. I quote out of their policy: ‘Continued development of the area between the Bayview Haven project and Tipperary Wharf, including the limited mangrove area’. They were going to wipe that area out. The home of that very rare bird. The home of the Chestnut Crested Rail. Can you imagine what would have happened after that?
We declared that an open space zone. We protected that very important species of bird. This lot on the other side were going to wipe it out and Territorians should know that. As far as Labor goes, Territorians will tag Labor with telling what? Telling damned lies!
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016