Page 2061 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 June 2021
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I saw a gleam in the eye of my colleague Ms Clay when the issue of path improvements for pedestrians and cyclists came up. Active travel is an important part of getting people moving around our city, reducing congestion and carbon emissions, and improving public health. That is why the Greens are constantly talking about increasing the amount of money spent on constructing and maintaining active travel infrastructure to be 20 per cent of our roads budget.
The thing I particularly love about investing in our public infrastructure is that it benefits everyone. Everyone can turn up and use the dog park, the skate park and the play park. Anyone can go for a walk around the lake in the afternoon with their date. Anyone can sit under the new gazebo on their lunch break. It heartens me to know that the investments we make to Tuggeranong Lake will be enjoyed by all Tuggeranong residents. Given that the beauty of public spaces is that they are available to everyone, I strongly believe that any development we do should keep accessibility at the forefront. I am aware that an access committee is being formed; I hope they will be consulted on this development to make sure that Lake Tuggeranong is a great place for everyone.
It would be remiss of me not to touch on one more thing that we have received a fair bit of communication on—the state of the lake itself. We are more than aware that algal blooms pose a great threat to our water quality, and therefore a risk to residents who would otherwise enjoy their time on or by the lake. I was proud to stand with the Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction, Mr Rattenbury, as he announced a floating wetland trial in Lake Tuggeranong earlier this year to stop algal blooms from seeding and spreading. It will run for two years. It is the first of its kind in the ACT, and will, hopefully, act to protect and improve the water quality of Lake Tuggeranong. I hope this signals to the chamber that we take all elements of Lake Tuggeranong seriously.
On water quality, I noticed that the motion makes special reference to the Tuggeranong Lake and Catchment Carers, a group operating under the Southern ACT Catchment Group. These hardworking volunteers have worked tirelessly for years to give Tuggeranong lake a bit of TLC. I would like to thank them sincerely for their ongoing commitment to the Tuggeranong community.
In conclusion, yes, we should consult frequently and earnestly with the Tuggeranong community to inform improvements and future upgrades. Yes, we should consider further upgrades to Lake Tuggeranong in future ACT budgets, as well as upgrades to the greater Tuggeranong area. And, absolutely, we should support hardworking groups of volunteers like the Tuggeranong lake carers to engage in this process. I thank them and other hardworking groups for keeping Lake Tuggeranong cleaner, fresher and livelier.
In this place it can be easy to get caught up in partisan politics, to oppose something for the sake of the party’s broader political strategy or for opposition’s sake. If there one thing I hope to stress to the chamber, and to the Canberra community, it is that I am not here to get in the way of good policy and good ideas. I am not ashamed to say that I wholeheartedly agree with my Liberal Brindabella MLA colleague Nicole Lawder.
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