Page 2787 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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There is also a separate $12 million over the next four years for city upgrades. Again, it does not appear that sustainability is a major priority for this. If the government wanted to champion sustainability, there are many things it could do as well as the issues I have been talking about in terms of pedestrian and bike friendliness. Well-maintained drinking fountains for people in the city who are not fortunate enough to have glasses of water provided for them would be very useful. People would buy less bottled water; and less bottled water means means less plastic, which means less waste. There are only five drinking fountains in the city, and there is no additional funding for any new ones.
Similarly, the city would be a great place to install bins for street-level recycling. This is an initiative that the government promised to implement, in its agreement with the Greens. The millions of dollars for refurbishment of the city, as far as we know, does not include the installation of recycling bins. If it did, it could capture the recyclable waste of city-goers, such as plastic bottles and paper. Other cities and towns in Australia have urban recycling schemes in their town centres, but Canberrans still do not have any easy opportunity to dispose of this waste responsibly.
Once more, I would like to mention bike paths and footpaths. We are very pleased that the government has honoured its agreement with the Greens and provided an additional $6.4 million of funding over four years for cycle paths and half a million per year for footpaths. Fifteen years ago, Canberra boasted a fantastic bicycle and pedestrian network. But since then it has been in decline. While this may not have been clear to everybody, particularly the major car users, it has been clear to the users of footpaths and the cycle paths, which have just been falling to pieces. The funding boost is well and truly overdue, and it will need to continue into the future to keep the network working well.
I would like to emphasise again the value of urban infrastructure that is friendly to non-motorised transport. Each person walking or riding is a person who is not riding in a car. Each car less is less pollution and less demand on roads. Each car less means a person who is walking or riding and having hopefully pleasant but definitely exercise in a way which will lead to a healthier population, which will lead to less call on our strained health budget. And a bike path or footpath also costs less to build and to maintain than a road. This is the way we need to go. We need to look at this instead of providing endlessly for cars or getting too concerned about the cost of the green paint for bike lanes.
Moving out of the city for a little while, I would like to move to Kingston. The first item I would like to talk to here is the Fitters Workshop. I understand that $200,000 has been allocated in the budget to redesign this and take away what I understand is one of Canberra’s premier music recital locations, a prime venue in the recent international music festival. I have been told that the internationally renowned Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe said that the Fitters Workshop had the best acoustics of any recital hall in Australia. I asked questions on notice about this workshop and I am afraid I still do not really know what the answer is. I think, though, that maybe we have not actually worked out the answer. The Chief Minister—
Mrs Dunne: Yes, that was the impression I got.
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