Page 1413 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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Way, as Mr Duby said at question time. It is Mugga Lane, Mr Duby, a different thing entirely. The Chief Minister went on to say, "I do not expect that asking the residents of Ainslie to do the same thing puts them at any disadvantage and they are therefore in any different position to people who live anywhere else in the Territory". So much for the people of Ainslie; the Government has written them off.
Mr Speaker, the thousands of signatures on the petitions which are presented today - there are over 2,000 today and there will be more tomorrow - may show the Chief Minister that every north Canberra suburb is affected. There are even signatures from residents of Belconnen. To say that there is no detriment completely ignores the fact that residents will now be faced with a 40-kilometre round trip to another tip. It ignores the needs of the substantial elderly community of north Canberra. Quite simply, the tips at Belconnen and Mugga Lane are closer to every other part of Canberra than to north Canberra.
Quite apart from the question of convenience, we on this side are very concerned about the effect on the environment and in particular on recycling. The ACT Government Service and recycling groups have put considerable effort into encouraging people to recycle glass and paper. Everybody here knows that it is very easy for householders to simply throw out bottles with the rest of their garbage. We are concerned that the closure of the transfer station will be a significant setback for the cause of recycling in this Territory.
North Canberra residents have become used to the idea of taking bottles and wastepaper to the transfer station and separating them for recycling. A number of people have telephoned me in the past few days to say that they do not use a garbage bin at all, that they take all of their recyclables to the Ainslie Transfer Station and compost the rest of their household waste. Now you have written them off as well.
No matter how much Mr Duby pretends, he cannot hide the fact that the Government has totally failed to provide alternative recycling facilities. It may be that he has good intentions, at some future stage and when funds permit, but we have not heard about them yet. One miserable set of bottle banks at the Hackett shops will not cater for north Canberra, especially when nobody knows they are there. When did you tell the people what you were going to do about it? It is clear that thoughts about recycling came to Mr Duby only after people made a fuss. The bottle bank system is fine, but people will not use it when they know that the bottle banks are often full to overflowing and litter the footpath.
Everybody knows just how easy it is to miss the once-a-month wastepaper collection from the kerbside. Just as with domestic garbage, there needs to be a convenient
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