Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak about the considerable headway that is being made towards urban sustainability in my electorate of Fremantle. I can say that, from the many households that have committed in some way to reducing their carbon footprint, non-recyclable waste and water use, to the schools, businesses and local governments that are striving to become carbon neutral and more efficient in their use of power and water, the sustainability movement is strong and growing stronger all the time as people and communities join this effort.

Last Sunday, four private homes in the suburbs of Hilton and Hamilton Hill were opened to the public as part of Sustainable Homes Day. In Hamilton Hill, Adam Peck and Amy Warne have retrofitted their 1950s brick and tile house with a 1.1-kilowatt solar power system, a 14,000-litre rainwater rank, roof insulation, a solar pergola and shadecloth and a greywater system. The surrounding gardens form the heart of the property. A front garden with predominantly native plants, which attracts various native fauna, is now no longer watered, while the rear yard provides much of the family’s food and also harbours chooks and compost bins.

The Greenhill family of Hilton built a new passive solar home on a rear block in 2000. The double brick house was designed and placed to suit the site and local conditions. It is insulated and, except for a small gas heater that is used ‘to take the chill off after a week of cloudy winter days’, requires no heating or cooling due to its solar passive qualities. The property’s garden ‘rooms’ include deciduous trees and vines that provide shade in the summer and allow winter light to filter into the home. A mandala style vegetable plot is enhanced by a chicken enclosure that rotates to the fallow plot for the purpose of fertilisation, and there are several fruit and citrus plantings.

The Greenhill and Peck-Warne households are among a group of local residents that this year have established the fledgling Hilton Harvest Community Garden project, which plans to develop a true community garden that will provide not only fresh, edible sustenance but also the emotional connections that are much needed in this rapidly-changing community. We have an award-winning community village in Hamilton Hill, called Pinakarri, which is forging a clear path to a new, socially inclusive and environmentally sensitive way of living in an urban environment.

The business sector is also contributing to the community-wide sustainability effort. The nation’s largest wholesale supplier of solar panels, Sungrid, is in Fremantle and, while it currently imports those panels, it is considering a manufacturing capacity, which may also be located in the electorate. I hope that proves to be the case. In South Fremantle, Quickstep will use the government’s $2.626 million Climate Ready grant to develop carbon fibre parts for use in land and marine vehicles in order to derive significant fuel efficiency gains. Carnegie Corporation’s wave power technology project in North Fremantle is close to the point of being ready to proceed with a large-scale pilot using its CETO technology.

Last month I participated in judging the City of Cockburn’s annual Sustainability Awards. The awards have served to showcase efforts already being made by all community sectors across the city—from individuals and community groups to schools and large and small businesses—and to encourage greater participation in sustainability initiatives.

At the same time, the City of Fremantle has made a commitment to becoming the second local government in Australia, and the first in Western Australia, to achieve carbon-neutral status. While the city has had a number of carbon reduction programs in place for more than a decade, this year the climate change crisis compelled the city to take more urgent action. From the time of the resolution, on 25 March 2009, measures were put in place that allowed the city to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 1 July. In February, the city’s successful application for $174,000 to install solar hot-water units and photovoltaic cells on council buildings was among the first dozen announced in the very first grant of the Commonwealth government’s Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. Earlier this month, further RLCIP funding covered the $160,000 cost of solar panels that now adorn the city’s Fremantle Leisure Centre, making it the state’s biggest photovoltaic grid connected farm. These panels generate enough power for 10 homes on an average day. Since June, all parking revenue in the city has been used to buy green power.

Taking such action and seeing the goal achieved in such a short time is testament to the achievability of sustainable living, given the will. It is certainly clear that Fremantle is engaged at a very high level in the challenge of climate change and the pursuit of urban sustainability. With more than two-thirds of Australians now living in major cities, it is critical that we continue to support the drive towards and encourage further innovation in urban sustainability.