Page 462 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 June 1989
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Let me establish these again. Let us take the simple question of wood fires. A decision that I am going to make perhaps before next winter is whether I throw out my old oil heater, go to gas or to electricity, or what I should use? Do I go to commercially supplied gas or to the governmentally supplied electricity? The decision, of course, will be gas.
An old wood fire would be lovely, but it has an effect on our environment, so I should stay away from that. But I have the right to choose. I do not think that anybody suggests that this Assembly or the select committee will come down with any decision to ban wood burning stoves or open fireplaces. They are not going to tell me that I have to use gas in preference to electricity. So we need to be sensitive to these issues.
The other point that I think Mr Collaery raised is one that I want to mention also. I express the first disappointment I had when I came to Canberra. I came from Cairns, where it was beautifully warm, and I wanted a place where I could sit in the sun in the winter but could not find one. After 50, 60, 70 years, or whatever period of time Canberra had been operating, the homes were still totally inadequately accommodating to the environment. Mr Collaery made that point. They have not changed, have they? Let us look at South Bruce. Mr Collaery mentioned some places and I will instance that place. It was given to a major company to develop as a solar conscious home area. In some cases perhaps it was, but in general I believe it to have been a grave disappointment.
What we do now is look down the track at Gungahlin or any other developments. Do we still draw our squiggly streets, or do we draw them so that all houses are directly aligned to the north? Do we impose on the citizens of Canberra those constraints? Further, when we approve the plans of houses, do we approve a plan of a house that is structurally fine, in every way well done, but makes no allowance for the sun? Do we take that step in new areas? I do not know, and I would want to give the matter some thought. I am not going to say yes or no to that here. It is an important issue, but I do believe that the Canberra community is ready to accept great leadership in this issue. The major point that will constrain us is the level of acceptance from the community.
What are we to do about rubbish bins? Are we going to have big bins that are said to be environmentally unsound, are we going to retain the existing system, or are we going to take a further step and have three bins or some sort of recycling process? What we will decide will be based on environmental needs and significantly on what the community will accept and use properly. I say again that I think we can provide leadership in that area.
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