Page 956 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 17 June 1992
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MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, the answer is no, I do not accept that. I think probably the supplementary part of Mr Cornwell's question reveals his agenda, which is quite clearly to increase the rent on Housing Trust properties regardless of their market value. So his supposition in the supplementary part of his question is sheer nonsense. Nevertheless, I will do him the courtesy, as I have said, of making the comparison that he has asked me to, and if I have to add anything to what I have already said I will do so.
Building Waste
MR LAMONT: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services. With the increasing pressure on the ACT's existing land fill sites, can the Minister inform the Assembly of any initiatives to reduce the impact of building waste on Canberra's rubbish tips?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Lamont for his question. I am delighted to announce a government initiative in this area. Again the ACT Government is being smart about recycling and is taking innovative steps to reduce the pressure on land fill. Mr Wood's office and agency and my office and agency have been working together on this. I am pleased to announce that the major Canberra-based demolition contractors, Irwin and Hartshorn, have entered into an arrangement with the ACT Government to provide an area of land at Pialligo whereby they can provide recycling for demolition or building spoil. Up until now there has been no provision in the ACT for recycling of demolition spoil, and builders' spoil accounts for something like a third of the total waste going into ACT land fill sites.
This arrangement that has been entered into between the Government and this contractor is operating as of this week. We are getting something like 130 cubic metres per day into that site. I should say that other smaller demolition operators are able to use that site; it is not just this one head contractor. That translates to something like 35,000 cubic metres of land fill space that we are saving, not to mention the possibility of getting some of this material back into the market.
This particular contractor tells us that in the past five years it has demolished something like 400 buildings in Canberra, about 40 per cent of those being commercial buildings. Each residential building generates about 200 cubic metres of rubble. As for commercial buildings, an example was the recently demolished Banjo Paterson Inn at Narrabundah. Something like 3,000 cubic metres were sent to land fill from that one site. This initiative, another example of government working across agencies and with the private sector, will reduce the pressure on our land fill and provide effective recycling of building materials into the Canberra community. It is a most remarkable initiative.
Ms Follett: Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.
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