Page 1676 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 June 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
How we grow our food bowl will also be critical to the number of opportunities we can create. With careful planning and community input we can open up the space for food and farming cooperatives, working with our education institutions to create school gardens, training courses and utilise their commercial kitchens to support start-up food processing. We can boost growing in your backyard or in community lots, kick start local food processing and manufacturing, and support social enterprises and volunteering.
We can learn from other leading cities around the world, such as Seattle, Toronto, Barcelona and Melbourne, who have invested in urban agriculture and protecting agricultural land in their surrounds as part of building local food security. In doing so they have created jobs, local manufacturing, new businesses, reduced climate emissions and connected their population to local growers for cheaper, healthier food.
Local food systems create meaningful work, social enterprises and tourism, and local pride. The bush capital would make for a wonderful food brand. These outcomes mesh beautifully with our new wellbeing framework for the ACT. You can see how transforming our food system can build our individual and collective health, our living standards, social connection, identity and belonging, our economy and help prepare us for climate change while reducing our impact.
Canberra has an incredible opportunity. We can inspire and facilitate a sustainable food and agriculture system for the ACT and surrounding region. We are blessed with many innovative thinkers and doers in our city who are ready to work with us. I want Canberrans to get excited with me about the vision of a food bowl for Canberra. I look forward to releasing a draft agriculture policy to help make that vision a reality, together.
I present the following paper:
Growing a food bowl for Canberra—Ministerial statement, 3 June 2021.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Health—mental health
Ministerial statement
MS DAVIDSON (Murrumbidgee—Assistant Minister for Seniors, Veterans, Families and Community Services, Minister for Disability, Minister for Justice Health and Minister for Mental Health) (10.39): It has been one year since this Assembly passed a resolution on 4 June 2020 regarding the mental health service system. The ACT government has had several significant mental health achievements since the resolution, and I am pleased to be able to update the Assembly on progress and improvements on mental health this past year.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video