Page 5690 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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MR HARGREAVES: Does the minister acknowledge that climate change is exacerbated by human activity, particularly here, where we can do something about it, in the ACT? What would he have in his mind that we could do, and does it differ from what he believes other people say?
MR SPEAKER: I am sorry, Mr Hargreaves, your question is out of order.
Mr Hargreaves: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: how so?
MR SPEAKER: The original line of questioning was quite specific. It was about renewable energies at Canberra Stadium. It is not a general question about climate change.
Environment—targets
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Transport and concerns the priority the government gives to roads and cars compared to pedestrians and cyclists. Minister—
Mr Stanhope: Excuse me, could you start the question again. I am sorry.
MS LE COUTEUR: The question is to you as Minister for Transport and concerns the priority the government gives to roads and cars compared to pedestrians and cyclists. Minister, the government has a target to increase walking and cycling in Canberra to be 14 per cent of work journeys by 2026. Other Australian cities are setting much higher targets. For instance, Brisbane has a target of 23 per cent by 2016. Minister, why is your target for the ACT so unambitious?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Ms Le Couteur for the question. In relation to the sustainable transport plan which was issued by the government in 2004-05, we did set significant challenges in relation to modal change. I do not have the numbers in front of me, but in the context of the modal shift or change that the government was seeking to achieve through the sustainable transport plan, the area in which we have had the greatest success in not just meeting but, I believe, exceeding the initial target set through the sustainable transport plan was in relation to trips to work by people walking or cycling.
Ms Le Couteur, you make a very fair point in relation to the need to review and continue to update our sustainable transport targets. We are in fact doing that. But in the context of or in relation to the issue you raise most specifically, the issue in relation to pedestrians, walking or cycling, and the targets that we set—the area, from memory, in which we have had the greatest success under the sustainable transport plan as a result of very significant investment, most particularly in cyclepaths and pathways, and indeed as a consequence of some of the planning decisions that have seen increasing density, most particularly around our major Civic area and the town centres, is that there has been a very significant modal shift achieved.
It is an area that we are quite proud of, Ms Le Couteur. You chastise and suggest that the target perhaps was not challenging enough. It may be that you are right, because it
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