Page 258 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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The government is committed to maintaining high levels of amenity in all of Canberra’s public places—Tuggeranong, Belconnen, Gungahlin, Woden, Weston Creek and the inner north and south regions. Over $29 million is budgeted to be spent on horticultural maintenance and the cleaning of Canberra’s urban parks, open spaces, public precincts and urban trees in the 2011-12 financial year. The government is budgeting to spend more than $4 million annually on cleaning Canberra’s streetscapes and public areas and removing litter and dealing with illegal dumping.
The government already provides record funding that goes directly to maintaining and improving our public places. In 2011-12 alone, $120 million will be spent on municipal services and local infrastructure upgrades. The government is committed to protecting the environment from littering. Last year the government introduced new legislation to ban lightweight plastic bags in the ACT as well as introducing new laws to reduce the number of shopping trolleys that are abandoned and litter our landscape and waterways. Ms Bresnan has already made mention of those. It is worth noting that the Canberra Liberals, as per usual, did not support this legislation.
While the cost of delivering government services is rising, the ACT government continues to expand the services it delivers. Just last week the Treasurer and the Chief Minister announced a fund to deliver additional funding into maintaining and upgrading the urban amenity of Canberra in the next territory budget. The urban improvement fund will mean an additional $22 million that will be injected into parks and playgrounds, mowing, shopping centre upgrades, footpaths and repairs to roads and, yes, more cleaning of lakes and waterways. This demonstrates that the government is committed to continuing to care for our city in an equitable, effective and cost-efficient manner. Again, I point out, the Canberra Liberals do not support this policy, which could mean that under a Zed Seselja government this valuable resource would not exist.
I would like now to address some of the issues raised in the member’s motion. The motion put forward by Mr Smyth states that the maintenance of Tuggeranong is a low priority for the Gallagher Labor government. This could not be further from the truth. As I have said, the high service standards for horticultural maintenance and cleaning in the Tuggeranong area are the same as those applied across other areas of Canberra. Public toilets, the town centre and high-use suburban shopping centres such as Kambah and Erindale are cleaned daily. Litter picking in town and district parks and major arterial roads, including Drakeford and Athllon drives, is carried out weekly; all pedestrian parkland, laneways and local parks are litter-picked monthly before mowing operations.
Of course, it is somewhat the responsibility of all Canberrans to take pride in their city, their parks and their neighbourhoods. I think there has been mention of Clean Up Australia Day. I have been an annual volunteer for Clean Up Australia Day, and will be again this March. I have nominated Point Hut pond in Gordon as my part of Clean Up Australia Day. Last year it was Richardson; the year before that it was Lake Tuggeranong. I am sure that Ms Bresnan will be out with her gloves doing her bit as well. I am not quite sure where Mr Doszpot will be this year on Clean Up Australia Day—indeed, whether he will be out there at all.
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