Page 1827 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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member to go and have a look at the national electricity law and have some regard to the complexity of the issues the government is seeking to address.
Turning to the issue of waste, the government has released its draft waste strategy for public comment. It is looking at ways to further improve the rates of resource recovery in the territory, building on the very strong base and the leadership position that the territory has nationally. The strategy looks at the connections between collection, transport, sorting, processing and the markets available for resource recovery to build on existing resource recovery rates.
The draft strategy, if adopted, will set the pathway to ensuring that less than 10 per cent of waste ends up in landfill by significantly increasing recycling and also, for the first time, looking at opportunities for the generation of energy from suitable residual wastes which are not suitable for other more economically attractive recycling options. This policy will take the ACT well beyond the 70 per cent resource recovery rate reached under the no waste by 2010 strategy.
The strategy emphasises the waste management hierarchy that encourages people to reduce the amount of waste they generate; reuse goods, such as clothing and furniture; recycle waste material, such as paper and glass; recover resources, such as energy from wood and biosolids; and dispose of any remaining wastes safely to landfill.
To help inform the community and elicit feedback on the draft waste strategy, five community fora were conducted. There was an industry forum and an energy-from-waste forum was also held earlier this year. About 65 people attended the fora, while 29 submissions were received. That community feedback has been vital to the development of the final strategy.
Turning to the issue of transport, of course, the Greens like to have it both ways. They are very happy to criticise the government for failing to deliver on transport, but when there are good initiatives, such as the ones in this budget to build on our transport capacity, they like to take all the credit. It is a cute political strategy, but it does not really have regard to the very hard and detailed policy work that the government has to undertake.
The government continues its delivery of transport policies, infrastructure, programs and promotion to create a new vision for transport in the ACT—where bus services are closer to home and work, buses are more rapid and more frequent, and more Canberrans choose to leave their car at home. The Red Rapid service trialled in 2009, and adopted permanently into the bus network late last year, is an example of successful long-term planning in action. The Red Rapid is running every 15 minutes on weekdays from Gungahlin to the city, Russell, Barton, Kingston and Fyshwick through a key transport corridor.
Yesterday the government announced a trial extension of the Blue Rapid to Kippax via Southern Cross Drive. The new Kippax extension will be supported by an expansion or relocation of the existing Kippax park and ride to provide better transport options for people living in the west Belconnen area. Of course, the government has invested over $120 million to date in transport for Canberra projects,
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