Mark Parton, Liberal MLA for Brindabella, is calling on the ACT Labor-Greens government to adhere to their own environment policies and reduce the Our CBR newsletter hardcopy delivery from monthly to quarterly.

The Our CBR newsletters are delivered into every Canberra letterbox monthly despite being available online. They have been delivered monthly since November 2015; before, the newsletter was delivered quarterly.

Mr Parton said the 8.4 million newsletters cost Canberrans approximately $2.6 million, and consume around 2,027 trees, over a four-year term.  The paper used is not from a recycled source, and would stretch the distance from Canberra to Perth and back again.

“The Labor-Greens government need to do more than talk the talk; they need to walk the walk by dropping the Our CBR newsletter from monthly to quarterly, like their policy used to be,” Mr Parton said.

“The blatant waste and the egregious cost of the monthly distribution on the Our CBR newsletter is out of step with the Labor-Greens’ environment claims of saving the environment. 

“The Labor-Greens government has banned plastic bags, banned paper tickets on buses, and announced further single use bans are coming. Surely, they must follow suit and reduce the amount of paper being used for a newsletter where an alternative is possible.

“If Labor and the Greens vote against this environmental saving motion, then it is indicative of the sham that exists in their government.  It is not a sustainable position.”

Reducing the newsletter from monthly to quarterly would save Canberrans around $1.6 million, a reduction of 5.3 million newsletters and about 1,290 trees, over a four-year term. 

“If the Labor-Greens members of the Legislative Assembly vote against this, you would have bring to question their environmental credentials, their integrity, their lack of fiscal responsibility, and quite simply deem them hypocrites,” Mr Parton concluded.