Whenever the Federal Parliament sits, Canberra’s hotel rooms and coffee shops fill with Fly In Fly Out lobbyists. Their pleas for preferential treatment for one client or another resonate around Parliament House, particularly the Ministerial Wing.
But the most effective lobbyists in Canberra, by far, are the homegrown ones – determined local residents with a bee in their bonnet and a burning issue to prosecute. A federal minister might have the luxury of showing the door to an interstate carpetbagger, but an ACT minister who ignores a residents’ action committee backed by a 500-name petition can find themselves in a world of hurt.
That Canberrans make excellent lobbyists should come as no surprise. So many of them have worked in the public service, they know a government’s weaknesses and pressure points with the same precision that an acupuncturist inserts needles in a patient.
It has to be said that some of the issues pursued by grassroots Canberra lobbyists in the past have been nothing less than self interest dressed up as public interest. Many higher density housing developments have been opposed by well-organised residents’ groups, some of which advanced arguments which, with the benefit of hindsight, now appear utterly spurious.
But not every campaign to preserve local amenity is mere selfishness writ large. Take, for example, the proposed closure of the West Belconnen green waste facility at the end of this month. Local residents have made a good case that closing a facility that permits recycling of garden waste is sheer stupidity.
There is a free garden waste recycling facility at Mugga Lane, serving Canberra’s southside. The closure of its northern equivalent at West Belconnen will mean, for some, a 50km round trip to dispose of their green waste.
The fact that both facilities have been free to use is important. Canberra residents are, characteristically, avid gardeners, and the recycling – rather than the dumping – of garden waste is in everybody’s interests. But charging people to recycle (which is what will happen if Belconnen residents are forced to use fee-charging facilities at Mitchell) will discourage the urge to be environmentally and socially responsible.
I expect many northerners will grumble but still undertake the 50km recycling expedition. That, of course, comes at a cost to the environment; Liberal MLAs have calculated that the change will cause an additional 100,000km of vehicle emissions every month.
The ACT Government claims that green waste bins, now available (at a cost) to Belconnen residents will remove the need for recycling pilgrimages to Mugga Lane. Really? Any resident of Canberra will tell you that a 240-litre bin, emptied fortnightly, is woefully inadequate when heavy pruning and mowing is necessary in our warmer months.
The government is also conducting a review of recycling arrangements. The catch? It won’t be released until after the Belconnen facility closes.
The operators of the West Belconnen facility want to keep it going. Surely an alternative arrangement, or an alternative site, can be found.
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