Page 1361 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
streetscapes I have no doubt that this 19-year period will be a very bleak part of that story. For 15 of those 19 years the Greens enabled it. Does anybody actually think that the estate development code of the last 19 years has served this city well? Obviously the Greens do, because they have not demanded change when they could have, when they were in the box seat.
We welcome Ms Le Couteur’s endorsement of this policy. We need more trees in the ACT. We are pleased that we will instil in young Canberrans a love of trees and a respect for what it involves to look after that tree, to nurture it and to watch it grow. This is an important policy and one we are very proud of. It is disappointing that Labor and the Greens will once again vote to have fewer trees in the ACT.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Advanced Technology and Space Industries, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.54): When I read about the thought bubble those opposite had planted in the Canberra Times about trees I wondered how they had come about that position. Looking past the fact that there were no details when the policy was announced, it did seem to me that perhaps it was a parody article drummed up by the writers of the ABC’s Utopia program.
You can just imagine the discussion: “We have got a problem. People love the environment, of course, but we want to bulldoze the place. How do we pretend to love the environment without letting on our real desires?” Someone probably piped up, “Trees. People love trees.” Somebody else probably responded, “Let’s plant lots of them.” Someone else said: “What is lots? 100,000? No? 200,000?” “I know,” said the brains trust, “a million trees. That’s the ticket. That will buy a headline.”
Mr Parton: I wanted to go to a billion.
MR GENTLEMAN: As Mr Parton said, it did get a headline. As I thought further about those opposite and how they came to the policy, the more I realised it could not have come from the ABC, because that would require the most conservative bunch of Liberals in the country to acknowledge that the ABC had value.
I then remembered it is nearly 10 years since Mr Abbott first contested the election as the federal Liberal opposition leader. It has been 10 years since the climate sceptics took over the Liberal Party of Australia, when conservative Liberals in this town began their march to take over the ACT Liberals. I remembered one particular policy that Mr Abbott had. It is the policy you have when you do not accept the science that global warming is occurring and when you have disdain for the environment. It makes a great headline but delivers little else. Twenty million trees was Mr Abbott’s promise. That Abbott policy sounds awfully similar to what Mr Coe has promised.
I have quipped in this place that Mr Coe wished to replicate his conservative idol. If he is reduced to copying Mr Abbott’s failed policies, we should get past the charade and perhaps those opposite should invite Mr Abbott out of retirement to lead the Liberals in this place. At least Mr Abbott may bring more details to election promises than what was offered by Mr Coe.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video