It’s a source of constant wonder how, despite many reorgs to rectify it, so many different arms of the ACT Government can keep bits of their tentacles in so many different pies.
Today the Liberals’ Brendan Smyth is asking why all the conservation can’t be done by TAMS.
ACT Shadow Minister for Environment, Brendan Smyth, will move a motion
tomorrow, Wednesday 20 March 2013, for the Government to establish a nature conservation agency within the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate by 1 July 2013.
According to Mr Smyth, the current conservation functions are split between the Environment and Sustainability Directorate and Territory and Municipal Services Directorate, and this has led to undesired outcomes, such as:
– Thinly spread field staff and reduced ‘corporate knowledge’ for operations.
– Lack of intergration between the policy and implementation initiatives.
– Poor environmental planning foresight of projects.
“This motion makes perfect sense as it will bring together the ‘doing’ and the ‘policy’ functions under a single directorate. This will mean better integration of policy and service delivery to our local communities.
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Considering the name, wouldn’t a nature conservation agency be more at home in Environment and Sustainability Directorate?
Chopping off and/or merging some of the tentacles might also be an option – particularly for a government with a budget which is still deeply in the red, and which has an ever-growing list of bright ideas to fund.
A lot of money was paid for that decision to split policy from ‘municipal’ services as part of the last functional review. Sorry you can’t just have one bit changed without having to relook at the whole.