Page 2345 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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Madam Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to the Lynch family and other members of Team Jim Jam for their amazing fundraising effort as part of the RSPCA’s Million Paws Walk. Jamie-Leigh Lynch tragically died in a car accident on the Kambah Pool Road recently. Jamie-Leigh’s parents, Markus and Sheila, decided to celebrate her life and love of animals by taking part in the Million Paws Walk. They named their team Team Jim Jam in honour of one of Jamie-Leigh’s nicknames.
Team Jim Jam raised over $15,000 for the RSPCA and was the highest fundraiser in the history of the Million Paws Walk. In recognition of their amazing efforts, the RSPCA will dedicate a dog kennel and an area in the cattery in honour of Jamie-Leigh. I commend the family and friends of Jamie-Leigh for this wonderful tribute which will leave a lasting legacy here in the ACT.
World Environment Day
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (6.24): I rise tonight on World Environment Day to discuss the importance of recognising our own environment on this important day. World Environment Day was started by the United Nations environment program in 1973 and has continued to grow since that time with the theme this year being think, eat, save. Think, eat, save is an anti food waste and anti food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your environmental footprint.
According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation—FAO—every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, one in every seven people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of five die daily from hunger.
Each year in Australia 60,000 families go without meals or are stressed about where their next meal will come from. Meanwhile, 20 per cent of all food produced in Australia—that is over four million tonnes—is dumped as waste. This puts a massive strain on our environment with the fact being that food is wasted.
It means that the resources and inputs used in the production of all food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce one litre of milk and about 16,000 litres goes into a cow’s food to make a hamburger. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions from cows themselves and throughout the food supply chain all end up in vain when we waste food.
This is an important theme that focuses our attention on food wastage. Thankfully, we have an organisation in Canberra that is assisting to reduce this large amount of waste in the ACT. Each month the Yellow Van rescues over 20 tonnes of quality excess food from more than 100 food retailers, event caterers and restaurants. A large proportion of food is fresh food and vegetables.
The food is distributed free of charge to around 80 charities and refuges supporting vulnerable people in Canberra’s regions. That includes domestic violence refuges, disability support services, homeless shelters, youth refuges and programs, and mental
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