Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to put on record today my support for the beautiful Araluen Botanic Park, which is in my electorate. Recently I visited the Araluen Botanic Park to hand over a Volunteer Small Equipment Grant for the purchase of gardening tools et cetera for this magnificent park. Rod Ross, the general manager of Araluen, and Liz Dunn were there to show me around. For those who do not know, Araluen is pretty much the Floriade of Western Australia. It is a beautiful park that has 60,000 visitors each year. During the winter months, because of its height in the hills, it displays beautiful tulips. There is also a springtime exhibition. This year the exhibition is based on the Year of the Surf Lifesaver. It is supported by one of its largest sponsors, Yates—which is quite topical, because they provide the bulbs for the beautiful springtime tulip festival. Araluen is a credit to the region and makes a wonderful contribution to Western Australia in terms of tourism and being a beautiful place to visit.

The park has been successfully operated and financially run by the Araluen Botanic Foundation since 1995 and is leased from the state government under a lease that will expire on 30 June 2009. The state government’s machinery of government recommendations indicate that they want to transfer the control of this park from the Western Australian Planning Commission to the Botanic Parks and Gardens Authority. While the foundation are not averse to having the Western Australian Planning Commission step aside, as they are not in the business of running parks and gardens, they believe a transfer to the government authority, the BPGA, will place an increased financial burden on Western Australian taxpayers from both the capital and the current expenditure points of view.

Should the transfer to the Botanic Parks and Gardens Authority take place, it would mean that the foundation’s status as an operator would be diminished to a ‘Friends of Araluen’—like the Friends of Kings Park—and, in turn, the foundation would lose its direct management role and a significant amount of volunteer support and corporate sponsorship. We know that when government sticks its hand in and runs things, it runs them far less successfully than do volunteers and people who are passionate about things, such as this group of people.

It is currently with the Minister for the Environment, David Templeman, and I acknowledge that, if this happens, it will cost an extra $380,000. I urge all involved—Alannah MacTiernan, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure and member for Armadale, and all members in the vicinity—to support the foundation staying in the hands of the local volunteers and the park management, because this is an outstanding example of what can be achieved by a local group running something frugally and for and on behalf of the people. I want to see it stay where the people would have a direct role in running this—(Time expired)