Page 4571 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018
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that we are doing to the environment every day through their continued use. I look forward to attending more plastic-free events here in the ACT. That would be a great outcome from this motion.
I move:
Add:
“(4) calls on Members to request that their political parties do all they can to eliminate single-use plastics and other harmful disposable products—such as balloons—from their campaign activities.”.
I commend my amendment to members.
Ms Lee noted my amendment. While we all have a strong connection to our parties, I do not think Ms Lee’s characterisation of my amendment is right. I am not trying to tell other political parties what to do. But we are all supportive of and recognise the need to reduce plastics. My amendment simply says that we request our political parties to do all they can to eliminate single-use plastics and other harmful disposable products such as balloons from campaign activities.
If that is dictating to other parties, well, that is Ms Lee’s interpretation of it. But frankly, we need to be having this conversation and try to reflect on it. As the Greens, we used corflutes in the last election. As we become more aware of these issues, it is incumbent upon us to reflect on these matters and think what we can do to do things differently.
If you go back 20 years, you will see that the discussion was about making sure we were all using recyclable paper. I think we all do now. I suspect that every party prints their fliers noting that they are printed on recyclable paper. This is the next challenge ahead of us, and it is incumbent upon each of us to have a think about it. I am simply asking that members might reflect on it and engage with their parties in that conversation. If Ms Lee chooses to continue to use as many single-use plastics as she can, that is her prerogative. But I hope that she might reflect on whether her party can make a difference. Certainly, as the Greens, we will be doing our best.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (3.54): I am going to make a few comments on the general subject of single-use plastics. Madam Assistant Speaker, I am seeking your indulgence, as you are in the chair, because I have a prop. This is a collapsible coffee cup, a keep mug, and it is brilliant for people like me who are not frequent drinkers of coffee. It is small enough that it can just live in my handbag and then I can take it out when I need it. I strongly suggest that it is possible to be organised enough to use keep cups for your coffee. Probably one of the Assembly’s biggest daily uses of single-use plastic would be the many cups of coffee that I see coming into this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker.
I want to also make some brief reflections upon festivals that do not have plastics. The first one I want to mention is the Aquarius festival in Nimbin in 1973. I went to that, and it was one of the pivotal events in my life. There were 10,000 of us, and there was no plastic. Partly that was because there was not much single-use plastic around in
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