Page 221 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 11 February 2015
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Mr Rattenbury: Trees.
MR CORBELL: Trees, the trees that you are lamenting today are the exact trees that you would have to remove if you built bus rapid transit along Northbourne Avenue. What hypocrisy in this argument from Mr Coe. What a hypocritical argument. That, and that alone, should allow people to reflect on how sincere Mr Coe is about the issue of trees on Northbourne Avenue.
But then he compounds his problem by stating that the last study that looked at the health of each tree along Northbourne Avenue was done in 2010. He is wrong. It was done last year. It was done last year by qualified arborists and landscape architects. It examined the health and mapped every single tree on Northbourne Avenue, and the Federal Highway for that matter. Every single tree was individually mapped and its health individually assessed. So his claim is just wrong. I mean, he has effectively misled the Assembly, Mrs Dunne, but he has done so through ignorance.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR CORBELL: I beg your pardon; ignorance, Madam Speaker, rather than—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, withdraw the comment. Withdraw the comment of misleading and—
MR CORBELL: I withdraw the comment.
MADAM SPEAKER: withdraw the accusation of ignorance as well.
MR CORBELL: Madam Speaker, I withdraw the comment. The facts is that he was wrong. He was wrong. This study was undertaken last year. What did it conclude? It concluded that in 2010 there were 802 eucalypts and 513 were in good health. Guess how many were there last year? There were 484—just over half. Just over half.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mr Coe!
MR CORBELL: Just over half, Madam Speaker, and the number of healthy trees is just over half of that half that was left—
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Coe, come to order!
MR CORBELL: and a significant number of them continue to be in decline. So in four years the amount of decline is nearly 50 per cent.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Coe, come to order!
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