Page 1967 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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to other town centres across Canberra over coming years. We hope this issue will be better addressed in the government’s final waste strategy, which we also hope will soon be released. Sadly, this is only a trial, but if it is successful as a trial, as it has been in Glebe Park since 2005, then this will be a win for all Civic users.
We are very disappointed to see that there has been no funding for solutions to reduce our organic waste going to landfill. It is doubly frustrating when the trial for recycling bins in Civic shows that the government does in fact understand the benefits of source separation. The organic waste trial at multi-unit developments is a parliamentary agreement item, and we will continue to pursue it. Organic waste makes up almost half of the domestic waste to landfill, so we are keen to see not only is this removed from landfill but also that the final product is able to be put to good use. But what does the budget do? Instead of reducing our organic waste to landfill, we put aside $7.5 million for more landfills.
Turning to active transport, there are a number of measures which we have called for in relation to active transport that have been funded, including $1.5 million for walking and cycling infrastructure in Civic and $400,000 for path lighting improvements over four years. The Greens-ALP parliamentary agreement has delivered improved funding for cycling and footpaths from the first appropriation, and this budget continues this trend.
For too long pedestrians and cyclists have been considered last by city planners, yet the benefits to the community of increasing cycling and walking are threefold: health, economic and environmental. Well-lit paths make it safer and easier for people to actually use the options of walking and riding to work and other places, which means that many families will not need to have a second car. As I said, this can save households a lot of money—more than $5,000 a year. I was very pleased to see that under Shared Services there was some funding to look at the issues raised by my motion relating to Government 2.0.
With economic development, we are pleased to see that the government has invested further funds into the innovation connect program, as well as recurrent funds for the advisory services support for high growth firms. The new and improved Canberra BusinessPoint now has an improved structure to support a wide variety of businesses through the various phases of establishment and development, which the Greens applaud. The budget also includes some funding for implementation of the education export services strategy to help the ACT build upon our reputation and actuality as a knowledge capital.
This is a start, but what we would like to see is more action from the government to seriously shift the ACT economy towards a clean, green economy. As Ms Hunter said in her speech, the government is seriously falling down in this regard. This is the direction we need to go, but we are not really going there as fast as many other jurisdictions in the world.
Looking at arts, we are pleased to see that there are funds for a marketing fund and a major events strategy. We look forward to some great events in the lead-up to the Canberra centenary, including especially those which showcase our local and
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