Page 1219 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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We have talked a little, and it is mentioned in passing in this motion, about live music and entertainment precincts. This has been an area of ongoing debate in this place. In fact, back before my time—it might have been in about 2009—there was an Assembly committee inquiry about live music, which talked quite a lot about noise and the coexistence of live music venues, residents and other businesses, and sometimes the tension between those. This has been a long-term issue. I know that Ms Le Couteur has raised this on many occasions.
We were waiting for some time for the government’s report on the urban sounds discussion paper. It was originally consulted on and expected at the end of 2017. It was not actually delivered until more like the end of 2019, two years past the date when it was originally spruiked to be delivered. This has been an area where the government, including the Greens, have been at haste to go slowly. They have talked about it but they have not done much until this point. Forgive my cynicism for presuming that, because we are getting close to an election, it is time to demonstrate that we are working really hard to do something, which is to call for a review—not actually doing something but calling for a review via a motion.
We also saw, just yesterday, the Chief Minister spruiking the growth, development and vibrancy of Braddon and other areas—Dickson—and more money going to those areas, which is a very positive result for people in those areas. Generally speaking, on the one hand, you would expect that people want to live in those areas because of that vibrancy. On the other hand, people talk about the noise in those areas; so there is a bit of mixed messaging within the government.
I go back to the point that the major thrust of the “calls on” in Mr Rattenbury’s motion today is about waste collection. As we have already heard, the ACT commercial waste industry code of practice is over 20 years old. In fact, it was a little blast from the past when I had a look at it and saw that the instrument was signed off by Brendan Smyth, as the Minister for Urban Services, in October 1998. Mr Smyth, while he was a long-serving member of this place, is no longer a member here.
The code lists the times when it is possible for waste operators to operate, and complaints can be taken by the EPA when they operate outside those agreed times. More recently we have seen the development, in places like town centres, of more residential and mixed use in our town centres. For example, where I am, in Tuggeranong, there are a lot more apartments in the town centre than there were back when this code of practice was signed off in 1998. It would be, I imagine, quite disturbing for residents in those areas to be woken up potentially at 3 am, 4 am or 5 am by garbage trucks. I know that some of my colleagues, especially in the inner city areas, like Ms Lee and Miss Candice Burch, have received complaints from their constituents about noise, and specifically about garbage collection at those times of night, and it is quite disturbing.
In general, we agree with the thrust of Mr Rattenbury’s motion. It is time to review the code of practice and we are in favour of that. In the interest of improving Mr Rattenbury’s motion just a little, I seek leave to move the amendments circulated in my name together.
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