ENVIRONMENT  

Environmental issues are vitally important to people in Darwin as they underpin our lifestyle. The environment and plants and animals form a big part of our spirit as Territorians. 

Sadly our environment is under increasing pressure as development increases with the economic growth associated with the oil and gas and mining booms.  We need to be vigilant and smart in the way we develop. I will do everything I can to make sure we protect the integrity of the environment as we grow.

Our wildlife is an important part of our lifestyle and has significant benefits to people’s sense of well-being, making places better places to live, and making Darwin an attractive place to base your business or bring up your family.

There will be changes in Darwin driven by changes in global weather patterns that we will have to respond to.  More shade and getting the green belt around our suburbs are key aspects of keeping Darwin a comfortable and sustainable place to live, work and play.

I will also prioritise some new intiatives to stop mistakes like the loss of native habitat in the muirhead development, which has been repeated at Lee Point recently. There appears to be major problems with the implementation of the EPBC act and the way it is integrated into NT legislation.

Firstly I will continue to push for and develop integrated strategic plans with real community involvement and indpenedent oversight. 

I will also advocate for a new biodiversity strategy for Darwin, identifying and mapping vegetation corridors  and putting in place policies and processes that will work to protect these areas. Specifically I will advocate for biodiversity to be prioritised.

I was appalled that the current system was not strong enough to protect the vegetation area on the Muirhead development and then this problem appears to be repeating on the Lee Point site and am really concerned that unless we make changes we will lose the rest of our native vegetation corridors as well.  This has major implications for the sustainability of wildlife populations in our suburbs and also spaces like East Point and the Casuarina Coastal reserve. It has major implications in degrading our unique home city and lifestyle.

Looking at the strategic Land Use plan the government has recently released highlighted the urgency of this issue.  It has some nice words about biodiversity but they do not actually get implemented!

Biodiversity is identified internationally as a core part of liveability and sustainability and people in Darwin know well the value of having lizards in our parks and yards and native birds and frogs in our gardens.  Cities elsewhere have lost this and in cases like Singapore are spending billions of dollars to rebuild their lost biodiversity.  We can be much smarter and make sure we keep it.