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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 180 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
Members of this Assembly are saying that cars are good and that people must like them because they have them. It is quite clear that there is pretty well no alternative at the moment. I am not suggesting that it is not difficult for people in Gungahlin to travel. I have already made that quite clear. It is obvious to anybody who looks. But the point of this motion is to say that if you had a bus only lane, a reasonable bus fare system and an attractive bus service, and if other existing roads were upgraded and made more efficient, it would be a good start in offering alternatives. The longer term goals of employment in Gungahlin also have to be investigated.
For me, this is a question of balance between the unsustainable course of responding to the immediate pressure which has resulted from very poor management by governments of both persuasions and taking a long-term view of the problem. That is what this motion is about.
I referred to the environmental issues around greenhouse and local pollution. I am assuming members are familiar with the seriousness of the problem of greenhouse, although I wonder when I see decisions like this made. Similar decisions have been taken in many parliaments in developed and developing countries. People all over the world are saying what you are saying-that people want to drive cars, so we have to facilitate that. That is happening all over the world.
Insurance companies around the world are now agreeing that global warming will cause a massive increase in weather-related disasters such as hurricanes in coming decades. Big insurers and banks like Swiss Re, Munich Re and UBS told delegates at a United Nations climate change conference that they had already seen a huge increase in the numbers of floods and hurricanes. The UN's top scientists have warned that such extreme weather events could become more common because of global warming. The number of really big weather disasters has increased fourfold if we compare the last decade to the 1960s. The economic losses have leaped sevenfold and the insured losses are 11 times greater.
This parliament is a member of the Commonwealth. There are many small island states in the Commonwealth. I go to conferences and I hear people like you say to delegates, "We care about greenhouse. We care about climatic changes. We care about sea rise." What do you do in this parliament today? You do what people are doing in parliaments all over the developed world. You say that people want to drive their cars, so you are going to let them. There is a total lack of leadership.
The more immediate environmental impacts also have not been mentioned.
Mr Wood: Not everybody can live in the centre of town.
MS TUCKER: Mr Speaker, I would like silence, if you wouldn't mind.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Wood! Ms Tucker, you have the floor.
MS TUCKER
: Thank you. The Labor Party has taken the view-the Democrats have done this too-that because they have chosen to go west they are very clued up on the environment. We know that the western route will still have an environmental impact on Bruce Ridge. (Extension of time granted.) Maybe new members are not aware, so I will
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