Page 374 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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more also demonstrates our commitment to the national waste policy and the global shift toward a more circular economy. The time is right to ask some challenging questions and take stronger action to address the consumption of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic.
The ACT government commends the commissioner for the report. We look forward to continuing work on considering the recommendations and the broader issue of single-use plastics with the Canberra community and updating the Assembly as we progress. I present the following paper:
Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Act, pursuant to subsection 21(2)—Unfantastic Plastic—Review of the ACT Plastic Shopping Bag Ban—Government response—Ministerial statement, 19 February 2019.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MS ORR (Yerrabi) (10.56): Across the globe we are seeing increasing environmental action aimed not only at combating the impacts of climate change but also improving the health of our environment. The EU is actively working to reduce carbon emissions produced by its member states and it is also committed to phasing out single-use plastics. India has committed to ridding its lands of single-use plastic by 2022, one of the farthest-reaching commitments to tackle the problem from any country. Singapore is halfway through an ambitious plan to turn their city state into a city within a garden, and most recently in the USA, Congress has considered a resolution calling for a green new deal to rapidly transition the country to a clean economy.
Where governments are not taking action or not doing enough we are seeing people take action. In the Netherlands a group of climate-conscious activists sued the government for not doing enough to cut carbon emissions, and closer to home in the last few weeks we have seen the NSW Land and Environment Court rule a mine proposed for the Hunter Region should not go ahead in part because of its social impacts and because it was not compatible with Australia’s commitments under the Paris agreement. In short, now is not the time for talk; it is the time for action.
But this is not just about our environment; it is also about us. After all, our environment is what provides us with air, food and water and, to put it bluntly, it is what makes our existence possible. The better we sustain our environment the better it can sustain us.
ACT Labor has a long history of leading in climate action at the same time as building a fairer and more just society. By 2020 the ACT will be powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity and by 2045 we will be carbon neutral. We have brought in the plastic bag ban, we are undertaking the largest ever restoration of ACT waterways, and our Actsmart program is continuing to be a success with businesses and lower income households, among many other initiatives.
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