Page 468 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 June 1989
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Mr Collaery: How about your Fairlane?
MR BERRY: I do not happen to have one, and I know that the leader of the Residents Rally party would not be able to afford one on the meagre salary that he was earning before he came to this place. In any event I think it is important that this house is aware that the Labor position on environment is progressive and that we will make contributions to the investigation of the issue. I am sure that our commitment to support of the healthy cities project will also assist us in the development of environmental issues in the future.
As members know, the healthy cities project, which is supported by the Federal Government, involves three Australian cities and does not address itself only to pollution, which is one of the issues. It also addresses itself to matters such as transport, places of leisure, design and siting of buildings, workplace safety - any of the issues which affect the health of individuals who occupy our cities. In this case I hope that the committee invites the widest possible input to the inquiry that it will make on the issue of environment, and in particular on the issue of pollution.
But again I go back to the point that was raised by Mr Wood, and that is that there is no point having high-flying policies if you do not have the support of the community. And I would urge that those who direct their attention to work on this committee might consider that the terms of reference for the committee need to be strengthened to incorporate how the environmental message is to be got across to the general public and to the community.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.44): Mr Speaker, I have listened to the debate so far with considerable interest. It has ranged far and wide, and we have talked about all sorts of things in some cases, except the subject matter, which is the environment. I have been interested in the approach that has been taken by some in their claim that suddenly they have discovered this subject of the environment, which nobody had ever heard of before and which has now become the most important issue of today. It staggers me that people should make that claim.
What has happened is that all of us, including the people sitting here who have been making impassioned pleas this morning, have been members of this community for many, many years - some of us longer than others. Most of us - in fact, I would submit all of us - until very recent years had no regard for the environment whatsoever. It has been a fact of life that this fragile earth of ours has not been recognised until quite recently as being fragile. We tended to assume that resources were infinite and that the ability of the earth to sustain all kinds of damage was infinite.
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