Page 4146 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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rubbish. I often hear from constituents that the city is looking more and more unkempt and strewn with litter. People believe that Canberra’s standards in this area have fallen over the years.
A common view in Canberra is that you should not complain about long grass along our main roads because if you do, and a mower is finally dispatched, the hidden litter will then be chopped into a thousand pieces. You have a choice between long grass and fire risk or streets and footpaths covered in litter. This is not how people remembered Canberra in the past and not how they want to have Canberra in the present or the future.
Earlier this year, my colleague Mr Coe asked a question of the minister on the matter of litter. It was on 22 March this year, question on notice No 2391. Mr Coe asked:
What was the (a) total number, (b) average value and (c) total value of penalties or infringements issued under the Litter Act 2004 (ACT) broken down by (i) type of offence and (ii) suburb, during each financial year since 2007-08 to date.
The answer from Minister Steel was that due to historic data being captured manually, no data was available to answer the member’s question. Mr Coe went on to ask:
What was the total cost of clearing illegal (i) littering, (ii) aggravated littering, (iii) dumping and (iv) commercial waste, broken down by suburb for each financial year from 2007-08.
The answer from the minister was:
Since 2007 to date, TCCS has received a total of 9,682 requests for service in relation to illegal dumping.
We struggle to find the total number, average value and total value of penalties and infringements. We do not have that data available, or the minister will not give it to us. But we can see that we have had nearly 10,000 requests for service in relation to illegal dumping. That is about two complains a day for 12 years.
We obviously have a big problem with littering. I know that I write quite frequently to the minister about littering that has been brought to my attention by members of the public. The 2018 Transport and City Services annual report tells us that in the past year we have had 2,451 complaints about abandoned vehicles. That is more than six a day. We have had 364 complains about discarded syringes. That is about one a day. But the licensing and enforcement unit investigated and processed just 73 cases. I am unsure how many of those 73 resulted in fines or other penalties. So action on litter is something that we have been calling for for some time. We have been calling on the government to enforce the laws we already have.
It is already an offence under the Litter Act 2004 to dump rubbish in a public place. Basic littering penalties include $1,000 for individuals or $5,000 for businesses. Aggravated littering means littering that could cause injury to person, animal or public place. It carries higher penalties, being $5,000 for individuals and/or $25,000 for businesses or imprisonment for six months, or both.
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