Page 751 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 5 April 2022
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and stockpiling medical waste in addition, including feeding systems for those people who are unable to eat everyday food or who have special nutrition requirements, is not sanitary, not safe and not savoury. Nor should we waste the valuable time of carers. We talk about supporting carers; why would we put the onus on them to deliver extra waste to landfill? They are already doing their very best every day to support the other people in their households.
And there is the human matter of dignity. From what I have heard from some residents, the odour that arises from stockpiling this sort of waste is unpleasant, and many may feel embarrassed putting their bins out onto the kerb. They feel embarrassed having it in their backyards, in their driveways or in their car ports, because it smells. How would this be across Canberra for a fortnightly waste collection? And just imagine if you happen to pop away for a night and you missed your fortnightly collection. That would give you a month between garbage collections unless you had the means and the ability to take garbage to the landfill.
Many people do not have that ability. They are not going to jump on a bus to do it. Some people do not even have a car or a trailer, let alone wanting to put this stinky waste into their car. That is not to mention the time it would take them—time that they would prefer to spend caring for their families, rather than having to carry waste to the tip, when they are already paying their rates for what should be a basic municipal service. Waste collection is a basic municipal service that this government should be providing.
These concerns have also been raised with the minister. However, I fear that the FOGO, as it is now in the four suburbs of Belconnen, will be rolled out across all of Canberra, including the fortnightly waste collection. I have heard some suggestions that the NDIS could pay for the additional or larger bin. Firstly, this would not stop the stockpiling of waste, and these are for families who may have extra or excessive waste because of their medical or disability needs. There are thousands of Canberrans living with a disability who are not on the NDIS, but the NDIS was not designed to pay for basic municipal services that you are already paying for through rates. The NDIS was about choice, control, dignity and respect, not about paying to have your garbage collected, just as you used to have it collected but now you have to pay extra.
In fact, it is cost shifting. Someone else, someone else will pay extra for your basic right as a rate payer to have your garbage collected. So we are going to shift that cost onto the NDIS and onto a different government. I think that is absolutely outrageous. This is not a health issue. It is a council issue. It is a basic local municipal service; we pay for it in our rates.
It is worth noting also that some older Canberrans and other residents may not be physically able to take larger or heavier bins out to the kerbside. The government has a bin assistance program, which is great. I commend the government and those garbage truck drivers who help with that. They get out of their trucks and collect the bins for people who are on that assistance program. But is the government ready for that to be more widely accessed? Currently, people have the physical ability, the independence and the agency to put their own bins out to the kerbside.
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