Parliamentary record : Part I debates (27 February 1990)
Debates for 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990
1990-02-27
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/220388
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/699398
DEBATES - Tuesday 27 February 1990 there and everywhere and agree with the view of the federal government that we should not mine uranium here. Naturally, Canada will agree with all the restrictions imposed in Australia because it is laughing all the way to the bank while we do not mine uranium. Canada obtains a good price for its urani um. I thi nk common sense wi 11 have to preva 11 in the future and we will have to mine uranium, under safeguards of course, as any sensible miner would agree. The honourable mi n i ster went on to ta 1 k about the deve 1 opi ng countri es which have the world ' s great carbon dioxide sinks. I had not heard that expression before. It does not sound very flattering, but I know what it means after reading a description of it in the honourable minister's statement. He then spoke about the trees which are cut down in developing countries because people need warmth or because they need fuel for industrialisation or simply in order to stay alive. Before we start talking about depredations in forest areas in other countries, we should look around the Northern Terri tory. The Mi n i ster for Tran sport and Works shoul d be concerned not only about desert oaks that, very unfortunately, were felled by certain people who are not really interested in preserving our natural flora, but a 1 so about some of the work that hi s department does along the sides of roads. It is true that it engages the Conservation Commission to plant trees, but it al so bulldozes quite a few more. If the honourable minister wants details, I will give them to him. Mr Manzie: It is done only for safety purposes. Mrs PADGHAM-PURICH: That may the case in respect of some of the trees that are removed or pruned, but it is certainly not true of all of them. While I am on the subject, I al so have very adverse comments to make on the work of NTEC, as it was known in the past. It is called the Power and Water Authority now. I believe that matters are improving slightly. However, I am referring to the the way in which trees lining the side of roads are pruned and the prunings are left. I had rather more than a stand-up argument some years ago when officers of NTEC cut all the trees between the road pavement and our fence. The lopped branches broke fences and the stock got out. It took many weeks for us to get them back. I was not awfully impressed, and I let them know it. Actions like that need to be checked. As members of parliament, not only do we need to talk about conserving nature1s resources and leaving the world at least as good a place, if not better, than we found it, but also we need to di scuss these matters with everyone wi th whom we come in contact. We need to get rid of the perception that, if one talks about using unbleached toilet paper and pure soap and not using CFCs as propellants in sprays, one is a bit of a greenie - and no one wants to have much to do with greenies - or one is a bit of an old woman. That perception needs to be reconsidered and it has to be stopped. Any sensible person must reali se that we must consider the environment if we want at least to leave the earth in as good a condition as we found it when we arrived on the scene. Mr FLOREANI (Flynn): Mr Speaker, I rise to support the honourable minister's statement. I think everyone is now discussing and is concerned about what ~e are doing to this planet Earth. Whilst I do not know a great deal about the subject, I found the minister's statement very informative and I compl iment him. It was mentioned earlier that many Year 8 students probably know a great deal about this subject, and I would agree with that. I believe most of our school students are very conversant with the topic and probably know much more than do many adults. Statements such as this can 8778