Page 3497 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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At this juncture I would like to express my thanks to the former members of the committee - Dr Kinloch, Mrs Nolan and Mr Stefaniak - for their work in this area, to our hardworking committee secretary, Mr Bill Symington, and, once again, of course, to Mrs Kim Blackburn, who puts all the work together. I notice that this document appears to be printed on recycled paper. It certainly looks like it. If it is not, that is something that maybe we in the ACT Assembly should look for in the future.
I would like now to refer to the issues raised by the report. Anyone who has lived in the Tuggeranong Valley in the last nine years, as I have, would be fully aware of the growing problem of air pollution as the valley expanded quite rapidly at a time when wood-burning stoves were the flavour of the month. There has been a move away from the very inefficient, old-fashioned open fires - they are all very great, but they are certainly not very efficient - to some of the more efficient slow combustion stoves.
I note the points made by Mr Moore and I will not go through those any further. That effectively is what happened. We had an expansion of the urban area into a part of Canberra that, because of its make-up and the fact that it is a valley, suffered quite considerably from the problems of temperature inversion. Anyone who has lived there for as long as I have will have seen the build-up over the years. It has been quite bad. I think that is something that we have to address, and that is what this report does, in effect.
I think it is important that there be proper monitoring of these problems. As I understand it, there is only one measuring station in Tuggeranong at the moment, and that is in Kambah. Maybe the Government needs to look very seriously at increasing the number of monitoring stations that provide not only information for future research but also information for the community as to when they are likely to experience particular problems with pollution. The first recommendation of the committee relates to the need to institute a public air quality advisory service during the months of peak emission pollution. Those of us who now see the Sydney news, as opposed to our own Canberra news, see the pollution and UV warnings that are shown on the ABC. I think that is appropriate. Perhaps we can encourage the media to pick that up.
I also am pleased to note, Mr Acting Speaker, that the second recommendation refers to the need for the Consumer Affairs Bureau to expand its role to ensure that fuelwood offered for sale to the householder is sufficiently seasoned to allow for immediate use. We know that there are problems already with some less scrupulous dealers, shall we say, who continue to deliver loads of wood that are short. That is an area that I know the Consumer Affairs Bureau worked very busily on over that period.
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