Page 1875 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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social justice and a compassionate government. It is unfortunate that the members that it has elected to this Assembly have completely abdicated that platform and are now more interested in self-glory than social justice.
On the other hand, we have the members of the no self-glory party, two of whom were formerly members of the public service and would probably claim to have many friends within the public service still. It is unfortunate that they are prepared to sit idly by while Mr Kaine uses his knife to cut into their former colleagues in the public service.
Mr Speaker, let me now turn to some of the major issues of the last six months. First of all, there was the closure of the Ainslie Transfer Station. People of Ainslie and surrounding suburbs were given very little notice that it was to close. It was done without any public consultation whatsoever. Apparently a recycling facility is to open at Mitchell, but the Minister for Finance and Urban Services is not able to say when that will be. He made the decision to close Ainslie Transfer Station without having made any decision on the Mitchell facility.
As for the big bins at shopping centres, I have had numerous complaints from residents of Ainslie who have been disturbed at all hours of the day and night by the sound of breaking glass and pick-up trucks. Mr Duby's only response is that the bins are like a halfway house for criminals. When will people of Ainslie and the surrounding suburbs get an honest answer from the Minister?
It is even more ironic that this Government claims that it is concerned about the greenhouse effect. Let me point out a couple of simple facts to Mr Duby. The round trip from Ainslie and surrounding suburbs to Belconnen tip is approximately 40 kilometres, and people will have to make it to dispose of their household waste and garbage. If approximately an extra 500 people a week have to make this trip, that means that the residents of those suburbs have to travel about a million kilometres extra a year to dispose of their rubbish. So much for Mr Duby's concern for the greenhouse effect! Any action that the ACT Government takes on the greenhouse effect will be more than offset by the extra fuel used by residents to take their rubbish to the tip. What a shortsighted decision the Government has made!
Since the closure of the Ainslie Transfer Station, I have also had a number of calls from residents of Ainslie and surrounding suburbs about the problems that they have experienced in disposing of bags of fallen leaves and acorns from their nature strips. I suggested to the residents that they contact Mr Duby and ask for help in the removal of the bags. You must remember that most of the trees on the nature strip this autumn are spreading many leaves. They were planted by the Government and are the Government's responsibility. Mr Jensen, from time to time,
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