Page 152 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR RATTENBURY: In terms of research and data, I have just outlined to Mrs Jones, members of the opposition and the entire chamber that, in fact, we are seeing an increase in drug driving offences already because of the enforcement that is going on. Whether this will change in the future is hard to tell, but we are seeing an upward trend both in this jurisdiction and in other jurisdictions. This means that we need to continue to educate the community about the risks of drug driving and also the consequences of taking drugs and then continuing to drive.
There is continuing scientific research on how long these drugs remain detectable in your system and for how long they can cause impairment. This is an uncertain area of science. Again, because of the illegal nature of these drugs, there has been limited research in this space. There is limited scientific evidence. But I want to be very clear that if cannabis is decriminalised in the ACT, clearly we will need to be very deliberate in educating the community about the risks of consuming cannabis and driving.
Waste—green bins
MR PETTERSSON: My question is to the Minister for City Services. Can the minister please update the Assembly on the rollout of the green bins program?
MR STEEL: I thank Mr Pettersson for his question. I am delighted that the ACT government is delivering better services, and earlier, to the Canberra community. I was pleased to announce in January that the full rollout of the green bins program to all Canberra suburbs has been brought forward, with collections starting from April. Households in these new suburbs will start receiving their green bins from 25 February, ready for collections starting in April. Canberrans in the new areas have adopted the green bins with enthusiasm. I strongly encourage any households wanting to register for a green bin to go to the website, actgreenwastebin.com.au.
Green bins save time and money, provide high quality compost products for landscaping, and divert waste from going into landfill. The green bin program has proved incredibly popular with ACT residents. Once the rollout is complete across the territory, there will probably be changes in collection dates for households already using a green bin to make sure that the collections are as efficient as possible. We will keep the community updated on any changes as we continue to roll out better services for our growing city.
MR PETTERSSON: Minister, how is the rollout schedule of green bins in the ACT progressing?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his supplementary. As a result of the hard work by the team at ACT NoWaste and also JJ Richards and SULO we have started collections early across the whole of Canberra. There have now been 50,000 registrations for green bins across the ACT, including 9,000 in the areas of Gungahlin, the inner north, the inner south, Woden and Molonglo.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video