Mr Tallentire questions the Minister for Environment regarding amendments to the Swan River Trust in light of an Auditor General's report. The Minister defends the proposed changes, arguing for a broader catchment management approach.

AnsweredQoN 569Legislative Assembly
Asked
14 August 2014
Portfolio
Environment

QuestionView source ↗

SWAN AND
CANNING RIVERS — AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT
569. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE to the
Minister for Environment:
I have a supplementary question.
Will the minister withdraw his silly amendments to downgrade the Swan River
Trust in view of this scathing report from the Auditor General?

AnswerView source ↗

If I could summarise the opposition's
position this way: ''What we have been doing up until now has not been
working so we should do the same thing more and more!'' It absolutely
defies belief —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Premier and the Leader of the Opposition, I call you both to order
for the first time. The minister is speaking. I want a succinct answer to the
member for Gosnells' question. Thank you.
Mr A.P. JACOB : The
position of the opposition absolutely defies belief: the Leader of the
Opposition and the member for Gosnells came out straightaway and somehow tied
in the future merger of the Department of Parks and Wildlife —
Mr M. McGowan :
Abolition!
Mr A.P. JACOB : The
opposition has been deliberately dishonest the whole way through this debate. I
can get straight to that if they want to keep interjecting.
This report found that we need to manage that entire
catchment, which is twice the size of Tasmania. The Swan River Trust has a tiny
little pin prick of that site—72 square kilometres. We either expand
the Swan River Trust to manage one-third of the state and let the Department of
Parks and Wildlife do the other two-thirds or we merge the two agencies and
have a dedicated conservation agency, which is exactly in line with this
government's election commitment. That is what we are doing. The Labor
opposition is opposing us every step of the way. It is saying there are big
problems and that we should keep those problems going.

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