NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: ANNUAL REPORT

Mr RAU (Enfield) (11:18): I move:

That the 32^nd report of the committee, entitled Annual Report 2008-09, be noted.

I will not say very much about the annual report; it stands for itself, and those who are interested in the activities of the committee will be able to read the report for themselves. However, I will say that it has been a busy year; in fact, the committee had been using a working title for the report, which did not find its way into the final publication. To try to give it a little bit of oomph and colour, the committee took a leaf out of Her Majesty's book—where one of her years was described in Latin—and used the working title 'Annus Maximus', because it had been a big year. However, it never got into print.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr RAU: No; it was never even put up. Any member who wants to know what the committee does should have a look at the report.

I would like to say thank you very much to the staff of the committee. Patrick and Knut have been a tremendous support to us. I would also like to thank all the members of the committee, who have again worked really well this year. In this chamber the members for Ashford, Stuart and Little Para have all been great contributors, and, of course, there are three members in the other place who have also been great contributors, and I would like that to be noted.

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (11:19): I would like to make a small contribution to this motion. Having had the opportunity to serve on the Natural Resources Committee over the past, I think, 3½ years, I can say that it has been a very important committee to me. It is all very well to hold the sorts of views that I do with regard to the environment and natural resources, but this is a very good opportunity to find out some of the facts and to hear from expert witnesses. This is particularly the case on issues like stormwater which has been something that I have been very interested in and campaigned on for quite some time. To actually have the opportunity to speak to the experts and find out what some of the examples and problems are has been particularly important.

As our chair, the member for Enfield, has mentioned, it is a very good committee. We are very lucky to have not only a fantastic secretary and researcher who I think really complement our committee, but also the members. One of the sad things about our committee is that, depending on what happens after the election next year, there is no way that our committee can be repeated, because the Hon. Caroline Schaefer is retiring and we have already lost the Hon. Sandra Kanck. She has been replaced by the Hon. David Winderlich, and it will be interesting to see whether or not he returns.

We have been very fortunate in having the member for Little Para, the Hon. Lea Stevens, and the member for Stuart, the Hon. Graham Gunn. Whatever happens after the election, while I am not sure about David Winderlich, certainly the rest of the team will not be there in the new formation.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.W. KEY: As they have both interjected, they are going to a higher place. I am not quite sure what they mean by that but, certainly, their contribution has been really important. As much as I hope to be on the Natural Resources Committee again, who knows what the future will hold but we will certainly miss those members. The member for Enfield, the Hon. Russell Wortley and I (as the member for Ashford, hopefully) will just have to see whether we can manoeuvre our way back onto this committee but, as I said, who knows what the future holds?

I think we have made some really important recommendations to the government, and as much as we have been having a good time and really enjoying each other's interests and expertise, I feel that we have actually been very useful to the government. I know from the feedback we have had from the different natural resources committees and from other witnesses who have come before us that they have been very impressed in the main with our committee and our interest. We have had a few difficulties which I will not go into: I think they have been covered in different reports that we have made, but this is definitely a parliamentary committee that needs to be included when, and if, we have a review of parliamentary committees in the future.

The Hon. L. STEVENS (Little Para) (11:23): I just have a few brief comments to make following the presiding member and the member for Ashford. I too have enjoyed very much the time on this committee. I believe that we have done some very sound work, and the annual report reflects the breadth of issues we have covered during the year. In particular, the reports and the work done on the topic of the Murray-Darling Basin have been for me the most compelling and significant.

I would also like to pay tribute to our secretary, Knut Cudarans, and our researcher, Patrick Dupont. Both of those people have served the committee very well indeed and enabled us to reach the conclusions that we have, to really analyse the enormous amount of material we receive and to come up with, I think, some very solid reports for the consideration of this parliament and the public at large. I thank the other members of the committee. I have enjoyed the time very much. I wish them well, and I wish the committee well in the future.

Motion carried.