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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (12 March) . . Page.. 924 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

I also commend the participants in the event for promoting the No Waste by 2010 target. The government and the community need constant reminders that the target of No Waste by 2010 is something we all have to take responsibility for, if we are to achieve it. Unfortunately, though, the government's handling of public liability insurance problems relating to Clean Up Australia Day activities in the ACT has left a lot to be desired. For two years in a row, schools were uncertain as to whether their students would be able to participate-right up until a few days before the event.

I think it is important that students are able to participate in Clean Up Australia Day activities. Targeting educational programs at our students promotes an understanding of the surrounding environment, and the individual responsibility and care students need to take to look after the environment. Hopefully, this will assist in the long-term issues Mr Cornwell has raised.

The Clean Up Australia Day organisation provides public liability insurance for all participants in its events, yet in 2002 the ACT Insurance Authority concluded, without justification-that I could see-that children could be left without insurance coverage if they participated in the Schools Clean Up Day. In that year, no public schools were able to participate. This year, the insurance authority ran the same argument. The result was that participation by public school students was limited to within the school gate. That is definitely a better outcome. Students were able to, on this special day, not just pick up rubbish on their school grounds, which is something that I think most school kids do every day, but were able to be part of the national program of Clean Up Australia Day and the benefits that come with that.

The limit to within school grounds was not consistent with what I believe is the original spirit of Clean Up Australia Day. It is about showing ownership of and pride in all public areas we use and enjoy in our daily lives. The educational aspects of the Clean Up Australia Day event, particularly relating to sustainable management of the land, would have been hampered by this outcome.

We have a year to sort this out for 2004-the insurance questions, what we want our students to be doing to learn about litter, environmental issues, the No Waste By 2010 strategy, and how they will be able to participate. Hopefully, this debate today will be the first day in the context of being able to work out what happens with Clean Up Australia Day in our schools next year. Then the same situation will not prevail-that, less than a week out from the schools event, schools were still not sure whether their students would be able to participate.

Despite that, I support this motion. It is important that we congratulate the volunteers in our community, who take their personal time to contribute, in such an important way, to looking after the environment. Yes, there is concern about the amount of waste we are still generating in this community, not just in litter but waste going to landfill. We need to come up with new strategies for dealing with the waste.

A broad range of strategies have been discussed in this chamber-the need for bio bins and the need to look at the number of plastic bags generated by our supermarkets-and also how to prevent the build-up or generation of waste in the first place.

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