Page 938 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 21 April 2021
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Our investments in public transport are an important part of our agenda to make Canberra a more sustainable city. But we are also tackling this in other important ways. An area in my portfolio that relates to emissions is waste and recycling. It is all about developing a circular economy in which we recycle things and re-use them as many times as possible, tackling the throwaway consumer culture that sees too much waste end up in landfill. We are doing that in a range of ways. The Plastic Reduction Bill has passed through the Assembly and we are in the education phase with businesses around the phase-out of single-use plastics.
One of the most important initiatives from this budget that supports this agenda is our decision to bring forward the rollout of bulky waste services to all Canberra households by the middle of the year. That has a real focus on recycling, which has seen take-up rates in terms of the amount recovered from landfill of 30.8 per cent. When benchmarked with other cities, that is very high. We look forward to continuing the rollout. It will be to Belconnen first—bookings have been open for collections there—and will be available to the rest of the city by July. Every Canberra household will then be able to book one free collection a year of up to two cubic metres of bulky waste. This service is making an important contribution towards diverting waste from landfill, as well as supporting Canberrans in the community through organisations like Vinnies, the Salvos and GIVIT, connecting items that are needed with people who need them.
There is much more great work going on across Transport Canberra and City Services through the budget. Our government is very grateful to the hardworking teams across the directorate who are delivering it. There are our bus drivers. There are our grass mowers, who we have added extra capacity for; we really appreciate the extra work they have been doing to make sure that our city looks good. There are our waste management teams and people who do the important policy and service design work that sits behind many of our infrastructure projects. It is a busy and dynamic directorate, and I want to thank every member of it for their daily commitment to delivering better transport and city services for Canberrans.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Justice and Community Safety Directorate—Part 1.7
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.09): I want to commence by expressing my thanks to, and the government’s appreciation of, all the staff that work in emergency, policing and corrective services for their continued efforts in keeping the ACT community safe.
As Minister for Police and Emergency Services, I am pleased to support the 2020-21 budget, which contains a number of initiatives that will enhance emergency services and policing capabilities for the ACT. In the 2020-21 budget, we have provisioned a significant boost in funding for ACT emergency services. New initiatives supported include $42.1 million over a four-year period for increased firefighting capacity to
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