House debates

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Constituency Statements

La Trobe Electorate: Dandenong Ranges

9:48 am

Photo of Laura SmythLaura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I am very fortunate to have much of the Dandenong Ranges in my electorate—from Upwey to Mount Dandenong, from Sassafras to Menzies Creek, from Belgrave to Nangana, through Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook, and into the foothills. It really is a delightful place. It is an area of rich environmental value which requires ongoing assistance to ensure that its biodiversity can be preserved. It needs support to ensure that existing species of wildlife and vegetation are able to flourish. The federal government’s Caring for our Country initiative has recently provided funding for five local community groups in La Trobe to support conservation of our local landscape. Those have included the Knox Environment Society; Friends of Glenfern Valley Bushlands; the VFF Farm, Tree and Landcare Association, in Emerald and Pakenham; and Cardinia Catchment Landcare Group. A number of those grants will enable the better preservation of parts of the Dandenong Ranges and the surrounding foothills. Having caught up with several landcare groups recently, I certainly know that those grants were very well received indeed.

I also appreciate that there is still much more that needs to be done in order to preserve the environmental value of the Dandenongs. The health of the Australian landscape depends in large part on the work of volunteers and community groups carrying out revegetation and weed removal, controlling pest animals, carrying out extensive tree planning and monitoring those local indicator species that reflect the health of our environment. I also know that the single most significant thing that we can do to preserve our environment and that I as a representative in this place can do is take meaningful and quick action to cut national carbon emissions and address the effects of climate change.

The Dandenong Ranges are exposed to the risks of extreme weather events, and bushfire risks are foremost in the minds of all of us in the region. The science of climate change tells us that we can expect a greater incidence of extreme weather events if we do not take meaningful and swift action to curb carbon emissions. I accept the findings of that science. I accept the reality of climate change and that unchecked carbon pollution will create extraordinary risks and have a deleterious impact on our environment and our way of life.

I believe that any party which has designs on being the government cannot ignore that science. We need to act now. The consequences of a failure to act are not only a matter of national interest; they are of very particular local interest to those who live in an especially vulnerable part of my own electorate.