2020-08-27
Madam Speaker, I would like to start by saying thank you to the thousands of people who have voted for me over the four ACT elections that I have contested. It is an incredible honour to twice be elected as a Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly.
I spent my twenties in a community in Nimbin where we tried to build a better world. When I moved back to Canberra I became involved in lots of groups and then was founding director at Australian Ethical Investment. For me, becoming a Greens Member of the Legislative Assembly was simply a continuation of working for a better world.
I’m retiring now because I’m getting older and more cynical, and sadly more despairing about the future. Emma Davidson, who will hopefully replace me as the Greens Member for Murrumbidgee, represents generational change and new enthusiasm to fight for a better world.
Now of course, I have certainly had some successes here in the Assembly. In particular - I am most proud of my part in the Assembly passing world leading legislation that has led to the ACT meeting a 40% reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels this year. This is because we now purchase 100% renewable electricity for the ACT and the legislation means there are more reductions to come towards the aim of becoming a net zero emissions community.
Canberra has a very progressive community which has elected Greens for 25 years now, and we have been in the balance of power for many of these years - which has meant that the Assembly has agreed to things that would be radical ideas in other places. We recently passed a motion to plant a million or more trees and work towards a 30% tree canopy coverage for Canberra. And all parties here support 100% renewable electricity despite the both the federal Liberal and federal Labor parties supporting fossil fuels to various extents.
The Greens have campaigned on these issues for years, and it’s great to see them being acted on. As a Green I am both resigned and pleased that one of our functions seems to be policy development for other parties. As my mother used to tell me “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
As a result of this, in the 7th Assembly I was able to encourage the government to roll out water fountains across Canberra shops, parks and playing fields as a result of me campaigning for a ban on plastic bottled water; ensure better protection of solar access of buildings; and get poster bollards installed at group centres across Canberra, so live music and events could get better community promotion, and natural burials – which are now offered at Gungahlin Cemetery. I believe my advocacy led to increased consultation and notification in some parts of the planning system – although there is still a long way to go on this issue.
I also raised issues which were not acted on at the time, but were later legislated for, such as a ban on cage egg production, and puppy and kitten farms in the ACT.
In this term, I am really pleased that my efforts here in the Assembly have led to commitments from all parties for more tree planting, establishing an integrity commission, more rights for tenants, more land being allocated for social and affordable housing through legislated targets that I introduced, increased women’s rights including medical abortions, fairer fines legislation, and just today - stopping misleading political advertising.
I won’t go through the whole laundry list of Greens achievements here but I’m very pleased to have been part of making the Greens agenda happen.
There are a few achievements that I am particularly proud of because it’s unlikely they would have happened without me being here. I’m thinking of the land tax exemption for affordable rentals, stopping the Federal Golf Club expanding at the top of its land, and the extension of the seniors’ rates deferral to the average older Canberran not just those in the expensive parts of town.
These last items have tended to be in areas where I have been able to co-operate with the Liberal party. It’s been one of the frustrations of my time here that there has not been much co-operation with the Liberals, due to reservations on both sides.
In the 7th Assembly I was one of 4 Greens in an Assembly of 17, now I am one of 2 Greens in an Assembly of 25. For me this has been frustrating in a number of ways. But I would like to sincerely thank my fellow Greens MLA, Shane Rattenbury, for his support and his work on behalf of the people of Canberra and the Greens. I have no doubt that his and his staff’s work as part of the ACT Government has led to many improvements in ACT Government actions and policies. I equally have no doubt that much of that work has been either unacknowledged or in fact claimed by the ALP.
Moving onto to my more major frustrations, I and even more - my office and the women of Canberra, put a lot of effort into trying to improve ACT legislation to require a positive definition of sexual consent. I think it’s fair enough that people should say ‘yes’ to sex if they want it, but also ‘no’. Despite me presenting two bills on the subject to the Assembly, this remains important unfinished business for the ACT, as witnessed by continuing reports of sexual violence.
The Government’s reluctance to provide information to the community is high on my mental list of frustrations. As you all know, as a backbencher I can ask questions – in the chamber and on notice. That is my one superpower - I can ask questions of the Government and they must answer me although sometimes the answer is effectively content free. I’m still frustrated that the Assembly does not have an accessible, searchable database of the responses to questions and I hope that this is addressed soon.
Last year I asked a series of questions about public transport patronage with Network 19 because the government was not telling anyone how the new network was going. Even worse was the consultation on the route for light rail from Civic to Woden. During this the government refused to tell us how long it would take to travel between Civic and Woden on the planned routes even though they would have had that information.
Public transport - in particular light rail, is an issue that has dogged ACT politics for the last eight years. I asked the Government if it had compared the greenhouse gas emissions for light rail with that of bus rapid transit or done a life cycle analysis for light rail. The answer to both was no. I also asked about operational greenhouse gas emissions for the light rail and was told that it was commercial in confidence. That was not the answer I expected.
This lack of basic information on the greenhouse gas effects of our major public transport infrastructure is one of reasons for the climate change trigger in my planning legislation last week. It won’t tell us all we need to know to make the right decisions for the long term, but it is a good start. I believe we need more life cycle analyses of all of our major projects to better understand what stacks up.
I also have major reservations about the cost of light rail, as well as the time it is projected to take to get to Woden from Civic - especially compared to the current rapid bus services. One solution to this could be to ensure that there are express services to Woden. This will ensure that it is an attractive alternative to driving, and the government needs to think harder about how these express services can be delivered.
But Madam Speaker, the area I am most frustrated with is planning. We can do better. We have wasted the four years of this Assembly. What we are building in Canberra is unaffordable for both many Canberra residents as well as our environment. What we are building now will be here for the changed, hotter climate that is coming and I am concerned that it just won’t work well enough to meet the needs of our future, and will add to the destruction of our environment.
The Parliamentary Agreement included a commitment to an inquiry into housing by the Planning Committee. However, when the committee started, the other members of the committee wanted to inquire into billboard advertising first. When the Planning Committee finally began to inquire into housing, the government launched the ‘Housing Choices’ citizens’ jury process. That process covered many of the same topics as the Planning Committee inquiry, so the Planning Committee stopped its inquiry. The citizen’s jury reported in mid 2018, and the government agreed in principle to all the recommendations. It then did nothing with them. This was a waste of the community’s time and a waste of the opportunity to build Canberra better.
Along with many Canberrans, I have been frustrated to watch this kind of consultation. It is disrespectful to constantly involve the public in consultation processes, but then disregard their feedback. We can do better – with genuine, meaningful consultation with our community. And when there are pre-determined outcomes, the Government simply needs to be clear with the community on this, rather than pretending that consultation may actually change an outcome. This is the sort of thing that makes people distrustful and cynical and is perfectly understandable.
A few specific planning issues the government could improve on are: better valuing the community in consultation processes; undertaking masterplans in areas where there are big changes afoot; and looking at housing typology to get more affordable options.
Income inequality has been rising and the poor are getting poorer. I and my Greens colleagues have tried to do something about this with more affordable housing and a fairer fines system. I believe that one reason this is an issue is politicians here and elsewhere are usually paid more than the average wage in our communities. This can mean that we lose track of how tough some in our community are doing. So I have one radical policy proposal for my last speech. I think we should say that 2 or maybe 3 terms should be the maximum anyone can serve as an MLA. In this we would emulate one of the better features of the American system, a limit of 2 terms for presidents. Hopefully that would keep us all more in touch with life outside here.
As Members will have heard me say many times, I stood for the Assembly because I desperately want to do something to reduce climate change. This is an area where I am overwhelmed by the lack of action worldwide. Right now, the annual global average temperature is about 1.1° Celsius more than pre-industrial levels and it’s on track to be 1.5 degrees hotter by 2030. It’s no accident that last summer was dominated by bushfires and that last week there was an out of control fire in northern NSW despite it being officially winter.
Surveys tell us that most Australians think we should address climate change. I don’t know why we don’t. Hopefully our young people will lead the way here. I have for many years said that the Australian Youth Climate Coalition is the hope for us all. They have been joined by the School Climate Strikers from across the world. I plan to do what I can to help them in my life after the Assembly. I look forward to seeing more Greens elected to the Assembly and other parliaments to achieve the changes we need.
In conclusion, I would like to thank my staff, Allison, Adriana, Eddy, Veronica and Jason as well as Travis, Lily, Georgie and Emily who worked with me earlier in the term, and Lisa, John and Indra who I share with Shane Rattenbury. I would like to thank the other Green staff both in the Assembly and our office, and all the Assembly staff who keep this place running. I would like to thank all the Canberra community that I have worked with while I have been here. Most of all I would like to thank my husband Guy because without his love and support there is no way I could possibly be here today.
I wish my fellow MLAs all the best for the election, wisdom in your decisions and good luck in the future.