Page 663 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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wettest year in Canberra—although the government said the second wettest year on record for Canberra—and the wettest year since 1974. The amendment indicates that this summer has been the wettest since 1947-48, so I think this is a good amendment.
Interestingly, while we are talking about the weather, 2010 was also a year when the daily maximum temperature was 0.6 degrees above the historical average, and that year marked the 14th consecutive year of above average temperatures for Canberra. These are very important facts about our weather, reminding us again that we need to adapt to the growing impacts of climate change. Climate change will have a lot of impacts, and one of the major impacts for Canberra will be our municipal services—how we manage the city, how we look after the grass, whether we keep the same sort of grasses we have had or whether, as the government has done, we replant existing grasses which use less water, particularly in summer. I understand that, unfortunately, there has been a fair degree of community opposition to this, because the grasses which are very good from a water point of view tend to brown off, and the community has had a problem with this.
These are the sorts of community discussions we need to have about how we manage our grass more efficiently. I regret that Mr Coe did not hand us those sorts of options as ways that the government might better manage Canberra’s grass. Just suggesting more money—I do admit that Mr Coe did not explicitly suggest that, only implicitly—ignores the fact we have a limited budget. It is important to look at ways we can do the job better rather than just spending more money.
On this note, I will also talk about a few other ways we could do the job better, apart from simply replanting with more water-efficient species and the work the government has been doing in terms of establishing wetlands and big ponds of water which can be used for watering playing fields. That creates the mowing problem again but, nonetheless, at least it keeps the grass alive where it is needed.
One of the interesting opportunities is getting more community involvement in the management of some of Canberra’s urban open space. Not only does this help ease the pressure on the government to manage every single space perfectly, but it also allows local residents to have more ownership of their neighbourhoods. Many people would actually appreciate the opportunity to be part of managing their neighbourhoods. For an example of how this can work, I encourage members to look at the city of Vancouver’s green streets program. It encourages the citizens of Vancouver to help keep their neighbourhoods attractive by tending street gardens, roundabouts, verges et cetera. The program began in 1994 as a pilot. It was very successful, and it became a continuing program. Today there are well over 350 green smart gardens cared for by volunteers.
In this program, street gardeners agree to work with the city and their communities to help the gardens grow during the year. Some gardeners simply weed and water, while others choose to express their own personal touch by adding their favourite plants and providing more colour and interest through changing seasons. The city puts up green signs in certain areas indicating that they are available for care by residents. A yellow sign lets passers-by know that someone in the neighbourhood is caring for it.
As I said, some people simply weed and water while others invest significant time
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