Page 2748 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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Given the various issues I have raised, I will conclude by pointing out a particularly interesting figure. Over the four years covered in this budget, the government has allocated $230 million for new roads, road widening, road extensions and upgrades. This is in addition to the many millions already dedicated to existing new road projects. In comparison, over four years this budget commits $16 million to sustainable transport initiatives such as new bus stations, bus priority measures and walking and cycling infrastructure. As the Greens have said a number of times before, if we genuinely want our city to evolve as a model of sustainability, the government needs to prioritise its transport capital spending and its approach to transport planning.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (9.58): There are a lot of things that I would like to talk to in relation to the TAMS portfolio. It is one of the most interesting and important portfolios because it does all the things that in other parts of Australia a local government does. It is a very important, very close to the people of Canberra portfolio. There are a few issues which the Greens have been pushing for years, and some of them are getting there and some of them are not as much.
Starting with some of the more positives, there is an allocation of $1.5 million for funding for walking and cycling infrastructure, the Civic cycle loop, and cycle safety issues. I am really pleased to see that the government is finally going some way towards implementing some of the recommendations of the ACT pedestrian network report. I recently went to a meeting at which someone said it was going to cost $50 million to fund all the walking and cycling priorities listed in the report, and I wonder how long it will take the government to do it. At this rate about 30 years—and that is far, far too long.
I note that the government, and in particular Mr Corbell, has on a number of occasions talked about the importance of building a Civic cycling loop, which has been strongly supported by Pedal Power. Many hundreds of cyclists, myself sometimes included, would benefit from this and it would make a great contribution to sustainable active travel in Canberra. I am really looking forward to the government turning this dream into reality.
Secondly, the ACT Greens welcome the government’s announcement that there will finally be street level recycling bins installed in Civic as outlined in the parliamentary agreement. The allocation of $1.65 million for a one-year street level recycling trial is good but I am very disappointed that this initiative is only a trial given that the benefits of this type of recycling should already be clear. I look forward to recycling bins being made permanent and introduced to other town centres across Canberra over coming years. We also hope that this issue will be better addressed in the government’s final waste strategy when it is released, which I gather will be with everything else in the last quarter of this year.
I want to emphasise that street level recycling is a source separation approach to waste, something that the Greens strongly support, and it results in the recovery of materials which can be used for higher uses, are made more valuable, and also better engages the public in the benefits of recycling.
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