Kathy Ridge's speech at the CANRI launch

Thank you, John, Minister, everyone else.

Isn’t it amazing? Like years and years ago when we first thought about the Internet, and what it could mean in terms of information, how it would change the way we think, not only about our environment, but also about ourselves and our society. I don’t think any of us really thought about this, but the geeks have got out of the closet, they’ve put it all together, and it is going to be amazing. And that involves considerable vision and genius, and I’ll get back to that at the end of my speech.

NCC would love to congratulate the New South Wales government on this initiative; it is promising to bring all of the information we need to manage our natural resources together in the one place. NCC understands the technology used in CANRI is a world first, in being able to share data stored in different agency computers, as well as the information that is stored in the community.

Why is this important? Well, there’s also been a sea change in the way that the community is integrated into decision-making in New South Wales. It’s not only through elective processes that the community gets to make decisions these days. The last ten years have seen a growth in the community being on natural resource management, agency boards, committees and also advisory councils across the State. We have over 400 people performing this function, and the function is a legislative function in some circumstances.

Our representatives on the committees tell us very loudly that they want access to good quality data before they feel confident to be able to make the decisions they’re making, with respect to the future quality and quantity of our native vegetation and water in New South Wales. The potential of CANRI to deliver this data across agency boundaries in a concise and relevant manner is enormous.

So the key feature is also the integration of data. People will be able, we hope, to inquire of the CANRI database what it is they specifically need to know. For example, the people in the Richmond will be able to plug in not only what are the flood levels, but how long the water will lie on the land, what will be the quality of that water when it runs off back in the river, will it result in a fish kill because of low DO levels, as we’ve seen recently in the Richmond, or will that water be able to be managed more effectively to try and avoid those sorts of outcomes.

The timeliness of accurate and integrated information datasets available through the CANRI of tomorrow will allow much better adaptive, and as Minister Refshauge said, intelligent management of New South Wales natural wealth, its biodiversity and its natural resources.

NCC thanks the government for the commitment it has made to CANRI so far. We look forward to continued resources and funding being made available to such an important initiative. We believe it will make the most significant contribution to the community in terms of its capacity in managing integrated natural resources in the future.

NCC would also like to acknowledge the genius behind this effort, and for us it’s very much been Social Change Online. Social Change Online, and particularly Rob Atkinson and Cameron Shorter, for this project, have enabled NCC to put its own community-generated data into the CANRI database. And for that we are enormously grateful. Thank you very much.