Page 2182 - Week 06 - Thursday, 6 June 2019
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Petition which does not conform with the standing orders—Kingston—Section 24—Mature tree canopy—Mr Rattenbury (56 signatures).
I thank members for allowing me the time to address this matter in the chamber today. The petition, organised by residents of Kingston and Barton and signed by 56 residents, was not directed to the Assembly; it was given to the executive committee of Unit Plan 212 at 14 Currie Street, Kingston. It concerns the removal of 34 trees on the property. While this is not a matter for debate in the Assembly and will be dealt with by the residents and the organisations involved, it does highlight concerns from residents in our older suburbs about the removal of trees from shared spaces and from across our suburbs.
The petition calls on the committee members to recognise the value of trees for quality of living. They offer shade, cooling and privacy and play a role in the protection of biodiversity in our city. These are important parts of our suburban lives and of maintaining Canberra as the bush capital.
Members may recall that last year the ACT government commissioned, and I released, a report from the CSIRO on mapping surface urban heat in Canberra. It was a very interesting report. It is probably not bedside reading for most people but it highlights some really important things.
Areas that typically experience above average temperatures on summer mornings include areas with large surfaces such as rooftops, car parks and paving, commonly found in commercial and industrial areas, major roads and intersections and new housing developments; areas with low, sparse, dry vegetation; areas with few trees and little irrigation; and some artificial playing surfaces. By contrast, areas that typically experience below average temperatures on summer mornings include irrigated areas, water features and lakesides; areas with green vegetation, trees and forest cover; and shady areas.
This next point is perhaps the most startling. Neighbourhoods with tree shade canopy of 30 per cent or more can be up to 13 degrees cooler on a hot summer day. This is an extraordinary difference that goes to both quality of life and issues of energy usage and energy affordability in the ACT. It underlines how essential it is that we have a good tree canopy going to the future as Canberra gets hotter and drier.
A study released this year by the ANU, in partnership with the Australian Conservation Foundation, models that by the middle of this century we can expect to have, on average, 101 days per year in Canberra where the maximum temperature hits 30 degrees or above. That is every day of summer plus some either side, if you just think about it in numerical terms. It is an incredible contrast to what this city currently experiences. It highlights the critical role that trees will play in protecting this city from increasing heat in the future, aside from all of the other benefits that this petition clearly highlights.
As Ms Le Couteur has identified through her research, Canberra is currently losing, on average, 7,000 trees per annum. That is from a combination of factors. One of the
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