Page 4592 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018

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It is good to see that the government has engaged with the Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia to discuss how Canberra can be made more accessible for RVs. It appears from the minister’s amendment that there is a range of practical measures, such as improving access to parking, water supply and dump points, that are under active consideration. Given that these actions are already in train, I do not believe that there is a need for a new dedicated strategy, but I would like to see the government report back to the Assembly on the outcomes of this work.

Colleagues, my apologies that it came a little late, but you will have seen I have circulated an amendment. I believe members were previously aware of it. This amendment is an amendment to Mr Gentleman’s amendment, and I now move my amendment:

Add:

“(4) calls on the ACT Government to report back to the Assembly by the last sitting day in April 2019 on implementation of practical solutions to better support the needs of the RV market, including the activities listed in section (3).”.

This seeks to acknowledge that the government has indicated that it is undertaking some work but, given the motion that Mr Wall has brought today—and we certainly share his interest in this topic—it would be great to get an update in April next year. By the time next April comes around we should be able to have a decent update on exactly what is going on and we can be assured that the work outlined in Mr Gentleman’s amendment is actually moving forward. The points raised in Mr Wall’s motion are the right ones. I am encouraged by the fact that Mr Gentleman’s amendment suggests that they are in progress, and it would be great to hear the outcome of that work next year.

I also briefly want to touch on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions which needs to be a consideration in our thinking for all sectors, particularly transport. The RVs, being big vehicles, produce significant emissions. I am reliably told by relatives who have hired them that they are not very fuel efficient; one can imagine that from both the shape of them and the size of them. Of course, many forms of tourism are challenging when it comes to the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly flying.

Some quick research reveals that the Winnebago has recently launched an all-electric RV for the green-minded grey nomad as an article suggested. With the ACT recently taking out the cities power partnership sustainable transport achievement award for its progressive action plan to transition government vehicles to zero emissions and other measures in that strategy this is an area that we should probably be considering as part of our commitments.

We are already looking at ways to make Canberra a great place for electric vehicles by making charging points more accessible, and perhaps there are opportunities to consider electric charging points at our powered campsites and RV parking sites as well. We may need to wait for the technology to advance a little further, but it is great


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