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- 9 May 2002
Thornleigh Area Bushland Management
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Speakers - Tink Mr Andrew
Business - Private Members Statements
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Page: 2007
Mr TINK (Epping) [6.04 p.m.]: The Thornleigh Area Bushland Society has worked for the past 15 years to promote awareness of the Thornleigh area bushland and to protect that bushland from damage and contamination. The management of parts of Pennant Hills Park and Thornleigh Park was passed into the Lane Cove National Park under a memorandum of understanding. This led to all responsibility for the transferred bushland passing from the Council of the Shire of Hornsby [HSC] to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The memorandum of understanding, apart from covering maintenance, park access, stormwater and fire management, also specified a proposed level of funding by the New South Wales Government. The estimated dollar value of the funding for the HSC's traditional lands was to be $1.6 million per year. Capital funding for the first year, $620,000, dropped down to $170,000 per year in subsequent years.
The Thornleigh Area Bushland Society wishes to again raise concerns with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Council of the Shire of Hornsby about the status of the memorandum of understanding and the reason why it remains unsigned nearly three years after the incorporation of the land into the Lane Cove National Park. The bushland society states that it is currently extremely difficult to secure any funding to maintain the contract bush regeneration and stormwater management programs that are envisaged under the memorandum of understanding. The society shares the views of the HSC's bushland manager who wrote in September 2000 about her "grave concerns that valuable work and gains made to restore these bushland areas were now being lost", and that funds were urgently required.
That having been said, the bushland society has an excellent on-the-ground working relationship with staff from both the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Council of the Shire of Hornsby. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has responded in part in a letter from Mr McIntosh, the regional manager, dated 18 April. The letter acknowledges that the memorandum of understanding remains unsigned and states that there is no lack of resources for the management of Pennant Hills Park and Thornleigh Park additions to the Lane Cove National Park. The letter goes on to state:
The Service has now received two payments of $600,000 (plus capital works) as an annual provision for these two additions. Most of these funds have been used directly on projects in the upper Lane Cove Valley. These projects include the establishment of 3 significant bush regeneration contracts.
Mr McIntosh states that he has found the council most co-operative in implementing joint projects within the context of the memorandum of understanding, even though it remains unsigned. He went on to state:
If TABS [the bushland society] is having difficulty with the funding of stormwater works perhaps the proposal and priority could be assessed jointly by the NPWS and Council.
The response of the society to that letter is, first, that, as Mr McIntosh indicated, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has received two payments of $600,000 plus capital works as an annual provision for the two additions to the national park. The concern of the society is that the funds may not have all been used directly on projects in the additional lands, but may instead have been used to fund activities outside the additional land. If that is true, it is a direct contravention of the agreements discussed at the time that the land was incorporated in late 1999, as outlined in the unsigned memorandum of understanding.
Indeed, the suggestion is that the three bush regeneration contracts referred to by Mr McIntosh amounted to no more than $100,000 to $125,000 in total expenditure. On the face of it, therefore, the amounts actually spent on the additional lands would seem to fall well short of the originally promised provisions. I request the Minister for the Environment to provide a detailed breakdown of what the money was spent on over the past two years, in particular whether it was all spent on the new land additions or whether some was spent elsewhere. The letter from the National Parks and Wildlife Service refers to a part of the Lane Cove Valley and does not specify that the money has been spent in the additional transferred lands.
Second, the society is concerned that the unsigned memorandum of understanding provides for annual expenditure of $1.6 million per year in funding provided for the additional lands. That was to include staffing, fire management and pest control. The society thinks it would be helpful if the Minister for the Environment could provide an explanation of the differences between the two figures—that is to say, annual expenditure was to include capital funding in the first year of $620,000 decreasing to about $170,000 in subsequent years, and the $600,000 referred to by Mr McIntosh is well short of the other figure. I ask the Minister for the Environment to provide an explanation of the differences between the two figures, in particular to provide a detailed breakdown of the amount allocated and spent on capital works in the additional lands.
Third, the memorandum of understanding also provided for the Council of the Shire of Hornsby to maintain its then current level of funding for bushland areas within the catchment by refocusing expenditure towards stormwater management. It would also be helpful if the Minister for the Environment could confirm that this level of funding has been maintained by the Council of the Shire of Hornsby and provide detailed breakdowns of the expenditure. I mention incidentally that I will also follow up the matter with the Council of the Shire of Hornsby. In conclusion, I reiterate that there is good on-the-ground co-operation between the council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the society. They do great work. I have inspected bush regeneration areas and I hope that the memorandum of understanding and the funding issue can be sorted out. Let us hope that the memorandum of understanding does not remain unsigned simply because funding is a problem. Resolution of one problem should lead to resolution of the other.
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