Page 2519 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
biodegradable bags for dog poo at dog parks. These are all really important things that we can do.
Current biodegradable disposable nappies are better for the environment than ordinary disposable nappies, but they can be more expensive to buy; and to be biodegradable, they need to be composted in stringent circumstances and conditions, which may not happen at standard landfill facilities. More work needs to be done on such products to help us to reduce our landfill waste. Many Canberrans—I presume most—aspire for the ACT to be a zero waste territory or, if not zero waste, achieve an enormous reduction in waste to landfill. We still have a way to go to achieve that.
With increasingly small house blocks and apartments, the clothesline is becoming a thing of the past. We have fewer people with outside clotheslines and more people depending on clothes dryers. Whether the energy to power the washing machines and the clothes dryers comes from a wind farm, a solar farm or a coal-fired power station, it still has a cost to the hip pocket for the consumer and the environment.
I am aware that Ms Le Couteur will be circulating an amendment; she has already distributed it although she has not yet moved it.
I will make one or two very brief comments before I close. We will be supporting Ms Cheyne’s motion and supporting the amendment, if that gets up. My only concern with Ms Le Couteur’s amendment, which I am not going to vote against, is that it talks about “using midwives, MACH nurses, disability support and aged care workers and ACT Government directorates to assist with education and promotion of these reusable products”. This may mean that those staff and professionals will have to be taken offline for training in how to provide that support and education to others. These are professionals who already are in demanding positions and who may be time poor. We will be potentially taking them away from their front-line service delivery in order to achieve this.
That is not to say that it is not an admirable goal. It is just something that we should keep in mind: it may mean that we have to deliver that. As Ms Cheyne’s speech outlined, not everyone even knows how to fold a nappy these days. I am sure some of our health professionals may be also in that boat.
Once again, I would like to thank Ms Cheyne for bringing this motion to the Assembly. Reducing waste is everyone’s responsibility and in all of our interests. Ensuring that there is choice for individuals is important, because some people may well be resistant to change, as is always the case. It is worth looking at, but we need to assess the environmental impact of moving back to cloth nappies and cloth female sanitary products in regard to some of the issues that I have outlined. I would like to see further work on that.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (3.34): I thank Ms Cheyne for moving this motion and for including continence pads at my request. I have reached a stage in life where I am unlikely to need to use nappies or menstruation products, but my future could include continence pads. Before continuing, I move:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video