Page 221 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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Another issue that arose over the summer was the availability of breathing masks for people to protect themselves. Again, there are numerous questions to work through, including their effectiveness, the provision of public information about them, how they can quickly be distributed to people who are vulnerable and how we can help make them accessible to the general public. I again acknowledge the role that ACT Health played, in partnership with some experts around town and the commonwealth, in trying to make this information available. I think we have built a really good foundation, but we need to be prepared in the case of future events.
There are, of course, many people who work outdoors in Canberra, and the air quality issues brought into sharp focus their right to be protected from working in unhealthy conditions. The same applies to people working indoors if the smoke affects their workplace, and employers will need to develop appropriate rules and guidelines for the protection of workers. We even had a brief experience with this in the Assembly in early January, when the smoke infiltrated this building.
It is not just people who are affected. Animals at Canberra zoo were reported to be impacted by the smoke. There were even social media reports of people’s pets being impacted, such as the sad story of someone’s pet budgies that died after being outside when the smoke rolled in. We do not even know how wildlife across the ACT may have been affected.
Another issue to consider, as we discussed yesterday in the context of Mr Wall’s motion, is that business and tourism in Canberra have been affected. An economic downturn like this results in economic stress for individuals who are running businesses, or workers, especially casual workers, who need to earn an income. Ultimately this compounds the anxiety and the challenges people are already facing.
One obvious impact of the smoke was that it caused a flurry of cancelled events this summer, from cultural events and festivals to sports events, both minor club-based events and professional sports events like the Big Bash cricket and the Australian Baseball League. In this new environment, sporting codes and clubs will need to develop air quality protocols, just like they have had to for extreme heat.
We had Canberra’s professional teams, such as the Brumbies and the Raiders, having to relocate out of Canberra to train. This year we did not even have Canberra’s public New Year’s Eve celebration and fireworks. These cancellations and postponements can be disruptive as well as costly. Even the mail was not being delivered because of Australia Post’s desire to look after its staff.
It is not just major events. I want to acknowledge that the air quality has caused the cancellation of probably thousands of individual events and activities for everyday citizens. Get-togethers with friends and families were cancelled, holidays were cancelled, exercise sessions were cancelled, people lost all kinds of opportunities to come together as a community and to do the things they usually do in summer to celebrate and relax.
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