Page 234 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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committed the sport and recreation unit to work with our local sports communities on how to go forward and develop a strategy for future events like this.
The Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment’s report Heat, Humanity and the Hockey Stick provided an important opportunity for us to reflect on the increasing future impacts of climate on sport and recreation in the ACT. As I said, ACT sport has a long history of adaptability in the way activities and competitions are delivered and the way facilities are designed and efficiencies made. Over time, the government has made various investments. That includes LED lighting, support for solar panels and synthetic surfaces, and irrigation upgrades to support the delivery of sport in the community. But it is probably fair to say that those investments in the territory were motivated more by a desire to improve conditions than by a deliberate strategy to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint.
Notwithstanding that, there has been much done, and this has been highlighted in the commissioner’s report. Having said that, there is an absence in our localised and national strategy as to where and how sport can address climate change. As sport so commonly does, the sector provides great community leadership in this space. As we move to the new decade I am committed to increasing our consideration of, and investment in, helping the sector address climate change. I am committed to looking at where the ACT sport and recreation sector can be a genuine leader in how to deliver activities, build facilities and run our community clubs.
I also want to assure members and the community that ,immediately the smoke started arriving in the ACT, I ensured that welfare checks and masks were provided, particularly for people who were sleeping rough in the city, and to organisations—including the Red Cross, Vinnies Night Patrol and the Early Morning Centre—that support people in our community who might not always get ready support. I agree that, as Mrs Dunne said, everybody in the Canberra community is tired and exhausted from the continuous effects that the smoke has had on our community.
We need to show kindness and patience to each other until we perhaps get a much-needed break later in the year. It will be important, as we move forward, to develop strategies to cope with unusual or unprecedented circumstances which we have learnt a lot from. All of the directorates within the ACT government, when it was required, stepped up to get expert advice and build strategies so that our city could continue as well as possible during those periods where the smoke haze was affecting the life of the whole community. I thank Mr Rattenbury for bringing this motion forward today. (Time expired.)
MS ORR (Yerrabi—Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Disability, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety and Minister for Government Services and Procurement) (11.41): We are all aware of the impact the bushfire smoke has had on our city this summer. Minister Rattenbury’s motion highlights that many people have been affected by the poor air quality. I would particularly like to highlight the need for working people to be protected from the risks associated with bushfire smoke as well as extreme heat.
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