Page 2248 - Week 06 - Thursday, 6 June 2019
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Our urban forest has been declining by around 3,000 trees a year, with at least 40,000 existing gaps to fill. This has prompted my colleague Ms Le Couteur to ask for an additional 7,000 trees to be planted per year. This budget starts this, with 17,000 new trees over the next four years. I spoke earlier today about how vital trees are for keeping our city cool in summer. This will be even more important in the future as our climate gets hotter.
The Greens have long called for action on organic waste, so we are pleased to finally see funding to start this work, an important step in tackling the war on waste. This budget also provides a major upgrade to our Hume materials recovery facility so that more recyclable material can be recovered from our bins.
We note that the agreement item to install 100 recycling bins around the city is finally being funded. The first rollout of public recycling bins happened in the Seventh Assembly but they did not seem to make it west of Northbourne Avenue. We are pleased to see them finally crossing the road.
The Greens have a vision for a world-class transport system that reduces pollution and congestion and improves our quality of life. Putting aside the roads investment, which I discussed earlier, the Greens welcome over $49 million for initial works towards light rail stage 2 to Woden, including funds to start work on a new Woden bus interchange.
There is also funding for transport improvements around schools and for age-friendly suburbs. These build on last year’s additional $30 million investment for active travel infrastructure in the parliamentary agreement.
We are pleased to see 84 new buses funded, which will meet demand growth and allow some of our oldest, most polluting buses and those without wheelchair accessibility to be phased out. We must stop investing in long-lasting polluters like diesel buses. The Greens believe that, to face the climate challenge, every bus purchase from now on should be zero emissions technology like hydrogen or electricity.
It has been great hearing about the surge in public transport use with network 19. If this continues, the next budget will need a commensurate surge in spending to meet demand. We will need even more buses, more light rail services and perhaps even more light rail vehicles.
We will also need to consider improvements for people who cannot use normal bus routes, like those who do not have the mobility to get to their nearest stop. The budget extends the flexible bus service for another year. However, this service remains limited in hours and usability. Work needs to be done on developing real demand-responsive transport. There is also a need to build on the age-friendly suburb investments to address safety and accessibility of the last mile—the distance between public transport stops and home—ensuring that streets and footpaths meet the needs of women and of people with a disability.
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