Page 2401 - Week 06 - Thursday, 10 May 2012
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not necessarily the case at all. We can be looking at still having a prosperous economy at the same time as looking at the issues around our environmental footprint.
Other chapters covered water and what is happening with the quantity and quality of water and water supply in the ACT and surrounding region. We looked at energy. In the area of energy, we were particularly looking at things like built infrastructure, but also transport. We did pick up on some great things that are being done out there around more energy-efficient buildings that are being built. We got some information on what the Green Building Council of Australia was up to. We really can make a big difference with the buildings we build but also by retrofitting. In this respect, we were talking about how into the future we need to be ensuring that we have infrastructure that has low energy needs and therefore has low emissions.
We also looked at the issue of transport. This is quite an important one—how people in the future are going to be able to get around our city, particularly with the issues of peak oil and also rising energy prices, fuel prices. There was also that connection to transport in our region. We know already that there is a still ongoing issue around public transport across the border into Queanbeyan. Considering the number of workers that come from Queanbeyan to work in the ACT each day, and even the number of workers in the ACT that go out to Queanbeyan, we need to sort out that problem of being able to have that public transport in place.
Also, we found that there are a lot of people who are living at Murrumbateman or other places around the region who are coming into the ACT to work. Those councils were raising the issue of transport and how that needed to be sorted out. On that issue, we also looked at what is happening in the region. How does the ACT connect with the region? What are the mechanisms, what are the forums in place to sort through some of these planning issues, some of these transport issues and so on so that we can be working together?
I think Mr Seselja took the one around transport as meaning that the ACT had to build and provide the transport throughout the region. That certainly is not said in the report and that was never the intent at all. It is about the councils and the ACT government working together, and there is an involvement from the New South Wales government as well, to see what sort of collaboration, what sort of initiatives, programs and services can be coordinated and put in place.
We found that there were a range of different forums. There is the regional leaders forum and there is a range of MOUs and other agreements that have been signed off for cross-regional governance. I also note that the New South Wales government has recently put in place a commissioner to look at these cross-border issues. Obviously, this is not just around New South Wales and the ACT. They are also looking at between the Queensland and New South Wales border and the New South Wales and Victorian border. We believe it really is important that we look at these issues in a regional way, that we can get some great outcomes if we can work together to look at not only better services for people, but also how we can assist the environment in the meantime.
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