Page 1718 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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pressure upon our natural ecosystems, especially the water quality of our catchments and our flora and fauna. This pressure is starkly illustrated by the addition of three new, and a possible fourth, species to the ACT’s threatened species list and the growth in frequency of blue-green algal outbreaks in our waterways.
Such findings are all the more concerning given the government’s commitment under weathering the change 1 to protect the areas of high conservation value. Unfortunately, over the past four years, no new areas have been protected other than to offset urban development. In fact, under the government’s existing policies, 72 per cent of all new development is being furthered on greenfield sites.
Despite this rapid growth in urbanisation, the report highlights the absence of any comprehensive data on land health. As the commissioner points out, and the Greens have been advocating for some time, it is critical that an integrated approach to future landscape planning be developed so as not to perpetuate the serious ecological impacts that the current poorly managed approach is causing.
Turning to the related issue of Canberra’s transport, the report paints a similarly backward picture. One issue that particularly stands out relates to the cost of living. According to the report, transport costs are the second highest household expenditure for Canberrans after housing. This is largely due to the government leaving Canberrans to rely on cars instead of investing in public transport. In fact, as the report points out, Canberrans are more reliant on cars than is the case in any other capital city.
As previous state of the environment reports have told us, the latest report repeats the warning that the ACT government’s transport and infrastructure priorities are strongly geared toward private car travel. The commissioner notes that over the reporting period the government has built 100 times more roads than transit lanes. He also noted that ACTION buses now have fewer vehicles than in 1991 and drive fewer kilometres with a lower level of patronage.
That is a startling fact which we must and can reverse. More than ever, this state of the environment report indicates the urgent need for the ACT government to improve public and active transport. This is the best way to address congestion problems, parking pressures, to mitigate growing pollution and to help alleviate cost of living pressures.
I now turn to the report’s findings on the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions, resource use and waste generation. Changes to these areas over the reporting period highlight a serious disjunction between the government’s commitments to and actual action in reducing emissions and sustainable resource consumption. It is interesting to note that the last reporting period precisely paralleled the implementation period of weathering the change 1, yet emissions rose seven per cent from 2005 to 2009, per capita waste increased at a rate five times that of the current rate of population growth and the ecological footprint of the average Canberran has increased by five per cent over the past five years, making it 13 per cent higher than the national average.
The ACT’s rate of private car ownership over the reporting period, despite commitments to reduce fuel-related emissions in action plan 1, has increased and the
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