Parliamentary record : Part I debates (11 November 1986)
Debates for 4th Assembly 1983 - 1987; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 4th Assembly 1983 - 1987
1986-11-11
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Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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DEBATES - Tuesday 11 November 1986 goose in the scrub areas. They are on the wetlands. but we are not talking about the wetlands. The wetlands will be protected. Mr Speaker. as I have said. there is little chance at all that the amendment of the member for Arafura to the motion of the Chief Minister will be passed. He seeks from us the ability to table the UNESCO documents. the video that was taken for the UNESCO meeting in Paris and the submission. together with attached documents, including videos. which it is intended to present to UNESCO. There is noway in the world that we will table those here. They are a part of our strategy for saving Kakadu from the wiles of those people who would tie up that area of land forever. There is no way in the world that 20 000 km2 of scrub can be managed adequately without this sort of use. Mr B. Collins: 20 000 km2 is a bit rough. Mr McCARTHY: A 11 ri ght; 1 et us say 15 000 km2 and 5000 km2 of val uab 1 e heritage. At the most. 5000 km2 is valuable heritage and the rest is scrub. We cannot get away from that. If the opposition members think they can fool people by sitting here and saying that. I think they have another think coming. because Territory people know Kakadu. They go to Kakadu. as I have. and they know what is there. They know how little of it is good country and how much is rubbish country. Mr Speaker. there is no doubt at all that. if justice is done. the UNESCO body wi 11 throw out the move by the federal government to include stage 2 in the World Heritage listing. It is being snuck in through the back door because there is no other way it could get it there. Mr SMITH (Opposition Leader): Mr Speaker. we have just had another brilliant demonstration of the contempt that this government has for the processes of democracy in the Northern Territory. In the very last few words of the pretty dismal performance of the Minister for Conservation. he made it clear that he will not tell this Assembly and the people of the Northern Territory what is in the so-called strategy that this government will undertake in Paris. The government stands condemned for that attitude which. of course. it is not unlike its attitude to a railway line and other important issues in the Northern Territory. It is quite content to tell everybody outside the Territory everything about these issues but to keep the people inside the Territory in the dark. As I understand it. a few weeks ago the Chief Minister played Rugby Union in the Masters Games and. ever since, he seems to have had an attack of the rah-rahs. Last week. I had the pleasure. I suppose. of accompanying the Chief Minister up the Track talking about statehood. Certainly. what he delivered to the people there was very much a rah-rah address on the advantages of statehood. He did not talk about some of the more cautionary elements of the statehood story and the need to ensure that we tie everything down. Particularly. he was attempting to convince the people of Alice Springs, Hermannsburg. Tennant Creek and Katherine that they should accept his word that there were no financial implications in relation to statehood. It is quite clear that people were not convinced by that argument and. in the statehood debate. that is one of the key issues that needs to be tied down. The same approach has been'~dopted with this. We have a rah-rah motion which, in its very first paragraph. says the Kakadu National Park does not meet the stringent criteria adopted by UNESCO for the inscription of areas on the World Heritage List. What happened is that the 3 members opposite - the 777