Page 1930 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010
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we need for the future. These solutions include things like organic and commercial waste recycling. It is ironic that the government has ignored these recycling options and is now having to commit $4.4 million to committing a new landfill cell so that more waste can simply be buried. The percentage of waste recovered in the ACT has sunk a few per cent and stalled. This continues; it projects to be the same next year. We need our targets and our actualities to rise.
Probably the biggest waste issue affecting Canberra at the moment is the tens of thousands of tonnes of organic waste which are still going to landfill—where, of course, it breaks down into the highly potent greenhouse gas of methane. For years the Greens have been calling on the government to act on this. We still ask the government to honour the parliamentary agreement; the parliamentary agreement talked about a trial in organic waste collection. We would also like the government to invest in infrastructure for large-scale recycling of organic waste so that it can target the big producers of organic waste like the commercial sector.
I am also very frustrated that the government has ignored the Greens’ calls for battery and light globe recycling. These are both items which become toxic waste. They are both items which are for sale in Canberra now. They are items which can be recycled, but there is no easy way for the community to recycle them. A cheap and easy initiative which is carried out in other jurisdictions is for the government to provide drop-off points like shopfronts and libraries.
Another cheap and easy initiative which is being carried out elsewhere in Australia is new drinking fountains. If we had these, people would purchase less bottled water and there would be fewer bottles to be disposed of. This would lead to less waste.
Another area of waste that the government has not worked on is street-level recycling bins. Again, this was part of the agreement which has not yet been implemented. I guess what is going to happen is that all the additional waste is going to go into the landfill cell that the government has decided to build.
Another area I am very concerned about is the urban tree management program funding which has been taken out of the budget. While I understand that the government is waiting for the commissioner for the environment’s report on tree management, and I am very pleased that the government is waiting for this before taking significant on-ground action, I do not understand why there is no funding for it going forward in the next year. The report is due in July, the first month of the next financial year. Why can’t the government respond to this report and start work in the coming financial year? It is an important program; it needs to start. The consultation work should be done in time for it to start in this financial year.
When we are talking about trees, it would not be right for the Greens not to comment on funding for the arboretum. $22.6 million is a princely sum; it would fund an organic waste system for the entire ACT, make good inroads into preventive health, fully fund our mental health needs, provide for infrastructure to ensure that Molonglo is a zero emissions neighbourhood and also do an awful lot in terms of preserving and maintaining our urban forest which we all love. I guess we should at least be pleased that the arboretum funding was not listed as a climate change initiative this year; at least that amount of greenwashing has been reduced.
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