Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today was a fantastic day. It was Ride to Work Day and Australians were encouraged to ride to work, and not just to ride but to walk or use any other form of transport that requires them to be active. What is important about Ride to Work Day is that it encourages Australians to take responsibility for some activity and get out there and ride or walk, take the bus or other public transport—just get out of their car, which is the main thing.

Last year over 105,000 Australians participated in Ride to Work Day and this year it is anticipated that that number will be over 150,000. I want to congratulate many from this parliament—clerks that are sitting here in parliament who rode this morning, congratulations. There are staff and other officials from this parliament, members from the lower house, senators, and a whole range of other people and community people as well. Ride to Work is an excellent initiative to get Australians who would not normally do so to get back on the bike or walk or take some form of transport to work other than the car.

The best thing about Ride to Work Day is that it is an initiative that works. That is the key thing—it just works. Of the 105,000 people who participated last year, when contacted five months later more than 43 per cent of them—almost half—said that they were regularly riding to work.

Happy to take part in today's activity, I along with other people did ride to work. We shared a wonderful breakfast this morning with other participants—in, I have to say, what was bleakly cold Canberra weather, as is usually the case. But it was lovely to be there with like-minded individuals.

The benefits of cycling are many, while the costs of continuing the status quo are great. We need to change and we need to take positive action to do that. The pressures of population growth and traffic congestion are well known. I have spoken in this place many times about that. The Intergenerational report predicts that by 2050 Australia's population will rise to about 36 million. Already our capital cities are congested. Already we are finding all of those problems associated with having too many people—not as a total number, but in regional centres or in capital cities. We need to do things about how we move people around and one of the easiest ways that works for the economy, for cities, for liveability and also for people's health, is to get them to be active in their transport.

I am not prescribing that everybody should wear lycra and go on a really fast bike or anything like that. I am saying: just get active. Walk to the bus station and catch the bus, or walk to the train station, if you can. Get on your bike and do whatever it takes to be a little bit more active. All of us can do something about congestion in our cities. It involves not getting in the car. That is the first step, and I think that there would be broad agreement in this place on that.

Just last week a large group of members and senators from both sides, from the government and from the opposition, gathered together to hear four international speakers talking about the key issues in London, Beijing, Melbourne and in other parts of the world and what makes those cities thrive. The fact is that when you invest in cycling and walking, you actually lift property values. You actually do those things that are necessary to make people's lives better and make cities better as well. It is a win-win for everybody. Nobody loses. When you invest money, regardless of the cost, it is just an investment that returns.

The avoidable cost of congestion, for example, in capital cities alone is estimated to be around $20 billion by 2020 in Australia. This is an outrageous figure. We ought to do something about that. It is good for the environment. It is good for a whole range of things. It is good for the economy. It is good for people. There is no doubt that we must all address the need to build more sustainable cities and we can help do that by the way we manage population growth. It is not about setting a limit and it is not about excluding people; it is about management and thinking about how we live. Cycling and active travel are critical components of that and any responsible government's plan for the future transport needs of our major cities should include these parts. All of us are having a win, collectively. At local and state government level now we are seeing the sorts of investments we need.

Copenhagen is regarded as the best active transport cycling city in the world, one of the most liveable cities in the world. Thirty years ago it looked much like our cities do today. They decided that all future infrastructure development, all future growth in cities, would be managed around the basis of providing for active transport—walking and cycling. Let us return our cities to people rather than giving our cities over to cars. How do we do this? We invest money and we think about it. We talk about it. We get people together and we get agreement. The dinner that we recently hosted involved    Philip Darnton, Chairman of Cycling England; Pan Haixao, Professor of Urban Planning in China; Tim Blumenthal, President of the Bikes Coalition and Foundation in the United States; and Mark Cridland, Associate Director General of the Department of Transport and Main Roads in Queensland. The message is that everyone can win if everyone contributes. (Time expired)