Page 4904 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
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We have achieved a lot this year, but there is still more to do for the people of Yerrabi and the ACT. We will see hearings for the building quality inquiry get underway next year. I hope this inquiry will deliver tangible outcomes to reform the building and construction industry within the ACT and support residents across Yerrabi who have experienced serious issues with the quality of their homes.
I look forward to works commencing on Gungahlin town centre linear community park so that the local community have access to quality public green space near their homes and in their town centre. I am very excited, as I know a lot of people in Gungahlin are, to see light rail stage 1 commence operation and deliver a quality public transport service for Canberrans. I am keen to work with my local community over the next year to reduce the use of single-use plastics in our community, and I look forward to working with people to change attitudes and behaviours for the benefit of our environment.
Madam Speaker, I wish you, the people of Yerrabi and all members and staff of the Legislative Assembly a safe and happy holiday season and all the best for 2019.
Valedictory
Climate change
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (6.25): As this is the last sitting week for the year, I would like to start off by thanking my staff, the wider Greens staff and all the MLAs here for your contributions. And thank you to all the other people who keep this place running, particularly the committee staff whom I have to deal with. Without you, it would not happen. And thank you to my constituents. Without their passion and enthusiasm, it would be hard to work out why I was even bothering to get out of bed to come here. I wish us all a very happy and safe holiday season. I will be very fortunate because I am going to get to visit my grandchildren, who are now living in Australia, which is a great treat for me.
Now I want to talk about things which are not so much a great treat. When I was the age of my grandchildren, summer holidays were the time for sunbaking, and there were no worries. Now, for me at any rate, and for many people, it is a time of fear, with heatwaves, flooding and longer and more dangerous bushfire seasons. Tomorrow I am going to a special Weston Creek Community Council meeting on bushfires, and earlier today Minister Gentleman talked about how climate change has made our climate more dangerous. He mentioned the Pierces Creek fire in November; he said that previously such a fire could not have happened before January.
A positive note on this is that tomorrow Canberra students are going to take part in a climate strike for a safe climate future. And on Friday my granddaughter, and I am sure thousands of other young people in Australia, will be going on a climate strike. This is what they want, and I quote from their website:
We are children aged 5-18 from cities and towns across Australia.
Most of us have never met before but are united by our concern about our planet.
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