Page 2243 - Week 06 - Thursday, 6 June 2019
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our communities that are most impacted. And people who care about the environment should be focused on climate change because it is already causing environmental destruction, with more severe consequences to come.
The path to a livable and sustainable future Canberra is through climate change action. A clear majority of Australians agree that we are facing an international climate emergency which requires emergency action and a response on par with the response to the world wars.
My message from the Greens is this: all of our budgets now need to be climate change budgets. We need climate action and emissions reduction, and we need it now. We ask: is this budget a climate change budget? It certainly makes some important climate action investments—in climate policy work, in school heating improvements and in organic waste, for example. But it is not a climate change budget.
A climate change budget would put mitigation and adaptation front and centre, with significant funding to reduce emissions in critical areas like private transport emissions, gas use and inefficient buildings. There would be significant investment in adaptation measures like green infrastructure to draw down carbon and cool the city.
In this context the Greens need to challenge certain decisions in the budget. Take, for example, the tens of millions of dollars for road duplications. This is not the mark of a climate change budget. Yes, more roads temporarily make life easier for car drivers, and sometimes they are justified. But we should be prudent, and even reluctant, when it comes to expanding roads and car parks; and we certainly should not be rushing to double the size of every road that faces any delay then spruiking it as a win.
These investments build the car-dominated city of the future. Roads are like storage in your home: the more you have, the more you need. Roads expenditure inevitably entrenches congestion and emissions, and essentially disadvantages the most vulnerable in our city who do not have cars.
Importantly, what could those funds build instead of roads? Imagine, for example, if they went to building the most impressive active travel network, or to public transport improvements. What about housing for those in need, or cutting edge, zero emission buildings?
These ideas are not always popular. Car drivers and local politicians tend to want unmitigated road growth. But this is one of the alternative views that the Greens bring to these discussions, and we will continue to highlight the reasonable and beneficial alternative of investing heavily in sustainable transport.
The Greens’ role is to tirelessly push the government towards better and stronger climate action. We are pleased to be ticking off more and more achievements like light rail, the best renewable electricity and climate change targets in the country, all-electric schools, and a leading zero emission vehicle policy.
In coming months I look forward to releasing the government’s climate change strategy to 2025, in partnership with my cabinet colleagues, marking another
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