Page 577 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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seeing the kind of improvement in waste to landfill that the government said would happen and that its policies are trying to address. It seems to me that we are spending a huge amount of money on something which, by the government’s own admission, in the budget papers and in the annual report of TAMS, is having very little impact. In fact, waste per capita is on the up; it is not coming down at all.
The motion moved by Ms Le Couteur contains some significant facts which are highlighted in part (1) of that motion. The fact that we have the second highest rate of waste production in Australia shows that this government has failed. In the ACT we do have economies of distance and we have economies of density. We do not have towns in the middle of nowhere that have to be subsidised. We do not have any rubbish in the ACT being more than 15 or 20 kilometres from the rubbish tip, in effect. So why is it that we are not able to get many more efficiencies than we are currently getting out of the current waste system and the government’s waste strategy?
Ms Le Couteur rightly points to a number of facts that have been outlined in the Hyder report. The Hyder report is a document well worth looking at. I think the government has not really looked at it in the detail that it should have. It certainly does not seem to back up the government’s waste strategy. As a waste strategy (a) it is a pretty worthless document and (b) I do not think it is actually backed up by the facts as demonstrated in the Hyder report and in a number of other open source documents which are out there.
The Canberra Liberals support much of the motion that Ms Le Couteur has put forward. We do have one or two slight concerns. However, we think that the sentiment is worthy of being supported. Of course, some of it is actually consistent, as I said earlier, with the third bin policy as promoted by the Canberra Liberals about four years ago. It is for that reason that I foreshadow an amendment that I will be moving to this motion after Mr Corbell’s amendments are dealt with. Our amendment will seek to have the history of the situation recorded in that the Canberra Liberals actually had this as a 2008 election policy.
In conclusion, I seek leave to table a copy of the Canberra Liberals’ 2008 policy entitled “green bins for Canberra”.
Leave granted.
MR COE: I present the following paper:
Green Bins for Canberra—Canberra Liberals, dated 20 September 2008.
I would ask that all in this place review that policy and look at what the alternatives could have been had the Liberals been put in government in 2008, as it was a very real proposition put to the crossbench. Here we are 3½ years on. Waste management was core to the Greens’ message and core to their brand. The Canberra Liberals had their policy on the table. It was one that we were absolutely committed to implementing and one that the Greens were very well aware of at the time of making their decision as to whom to support in this place. They went with the Labor Party, which has fobbed them off and has no intention whatsoever of delivering on this issue. Yet there still
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