Page 1044 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR HUMPHRIES (12.07), in reply: May I first of all welcome students of St Clare's College, who are in the gallery listening to our debate. I hope that they are enjoying the debate and perhaps benefiting from it.
I do not think some members of this chamber have really understood the parameters of the debate. I have made it quite clear in the comments I have made on this motion that I am not talking about cutting across policies of planting new trees in suburbs where those trees have been planted and decisions made prior to residents moving in.
Mrs Grassby observes with great brilliance that you cannot knock on the door of an empty block. Of course you cannot. However, the policy to which Mr Wood and Ms Ellis referred, of planting trees in advance of the houses being built in the suburbs, is not generally the policy pursued by the Government. How do I know this? Because the Government has told me so. Let me refer to the answer to question No. 824 to Mr Connolly, the then Minister for Urban Services. He said in answer to my question about the policy followed by the Government:
The ACT Government has a street tree policy which includes the planting of street trees in new residential areas. The planting is carried out when approximately 80 per cent of houses in a suburb have been completed.
I repeat that:
... when approximately 80 per cent of houses in a suburb have been completed.
Mr Lamont: What was the date of that answer?
MR HUMPHRIES: This question is not dated, but I asked it late last year, after I put this matter on the notice paper. So Mr Connolly was telling us, and I assume that he was telling us correctly, that, with 80 per cent of houses in suburbs having been completed - not begun; completed - before tree planting actually begins, it is fairly obvious that it is possible at that stage to talk to the residents. I have no problem at all with trying to put forward a policy which puts trees into suburbs as soon as possible, even before residents have begun to build their houses. That is a great idea. As the then Minister pointed out:
The planting of street trees any earlier than this results in a significant loss of trees due to building construction activities.
That is a very good point to make; I assume that you cannot always plant them too early. But where you have a policy that says, "Let us plant them when most of the houses are in the street", it does follow that you have an opportunity to talk to the residents.
This motion of mine is not a prescriptive motion. It does not say, "You must do certain things in certain timeframes in certain ways with all the residents and get agreement, make sure that they have all voted for it, and not diverge from their express point of view".
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .