FOGO Trial

A trial to separate food organics and garden organics (FOGO) from waste that would go into a landfill is being trialled in Ginninderra, specifically in the suburbs of Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie. As part of the trial, weekly rubbish collection has been reduced to once a fortnight as opposed to once a week. This has caused significant concern among many people participating in the trial. It is important to note though, that their concern is not with the idea of the trial itself, but with the reduction in rubbish collection services.

In my electorate of Ginninderra, average household sizes are larger than anywhere else in the ACT. Naturally, this leads to more waste generation which necessitates the need for weekly rubbish collection.

The government justifies this cut to services by saying other council areas in Australia that implemented FOGO have changed their rubbish collection to fortnightly and they are doing just fine. What they neglect to say is that many of these other council areas such as Coffs Harbour and Bellingen have rubbish bins that are 100L bigger than ours. This of course means they are better able to weather reduced bin collection.

Labor and the Greens have recognised that the smaller size of our bins might be a problem for some so they have suggested that Canberrans get a bigger bin, but surprise surprise, there will be a monthly tax on it. This would effectively be a monthly tax on larger families who need bin space frequent collections.

It does not have to be this way though. The Southern Grampians in Victoria allow for a one-off payment for a bigger bin with no monthly tax.

The intentions of FOGO are good, but the move to reduce rubbish collections will be harmful to many families.

Click on the arrow button to read my speech

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I thank Ms Lawder for bringing this very important motion before the Assembly.

With the FOGO trial happening in my electorate of Ginninderra, I have received many pieces of feedback from residents involved in the trial. This feedback has been largely negative. Let me be clear though. The intentions of the FOGO trial are supported and the ability to dispose of food waste in the green bin is welcomed. What has been roundly rejected though, is the switch from weekly rubbish collection, to fortnightly.

This issue hits close to home. It has direct impact on the day to day living for all Canberrans. And it will have even more impact on the residents of Ginninderra as a whole. The latest census tells us that residents in my electorate of Ginninderra have larger average household sizes than the rest of the ACT. And more people per household naturally leads to more domestic waste and more domestic waste requires frequent weekly pickups. This is common sense. Something that is frequently lost on this government.

The move to reduce rubbish collection is just another sign that this government is tired, arrogant and out-of-touch. With their blinders on, Labor and the Greens have tunnel visioned on the needs of the inner city with lower-than-average household sizes and lower-than-average numbers of children in nappies, while forgetting about the needs of the family dominated suburbs.

Ignoring the needs of families is classic behaviour from the Greens, as evidenced by their recent discussion paper on Active Travel which is full of ideas for disadvantaging Canberra families.

Take for instance the idea to implement car-free days. How much more difficult would car-free days make the weekly shopping run? Or how about the idea to reduce parking in areas with good public transport? Should a single mother have to walk hundreds of metres from a shopping centre with her trolley to get to her car just because there happens to be a bus stop nearby?

These family unfriendly policies are part of a larger, but unspoken philosophy of a radical attitude towards population. Federal and local Greens vaguely hint at this in their party platforms by calling it “sustainable populations”.

Greens patriarch, Bob Brown, has recently been more upfront about this Greens philosophy, calling, quote, the “human herd” as “unsustainable”. Maybe this mentality of calling humans a “herd” like a bunch of farm animals has inspired the Greens need to force more Canberra families into tiny apartment battery cages.

Our local Greens are more veiled in their statements on population, but the hypocrisy of their position is still stark.

I read from the ACT Greens Plan for Canberra. Under their population principles, they say that “The ACT Greens believe achieving an ecologically sustainable population in the ACT should take into account social justice”. I want to be clear that the shift to fortnightly rubbish collection will hurt families who choose to have multiple children. As data from the ABS and the Treasury shows, many of these families will be vulnerable and disadvantaged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and refugee families. Families with medical needs will also be harmed by this policy. The Greens pretend to be the champions of such families, but I ask you, where is the social justice in this decision?

Moving weekly rubbish collections to fortnightly pickups will add another degree of stress on to families who have been through enough these last few years. Is rising inflation, increased cost-of-living and sky-high petrol prices not already putting enough pressure on families? Now this government wants to reduce rubbish services and possible force people to pay for their rubbish at the tip on top of ever increasing rates? Again, how is this just? It is uncaring and it is wrong.

One way the ACT government justifies this reduction in services is by saying other council areas in Australia that have implemented FOGO have changed their rubbish collection to fortnightly. But not all of these other council areas are directly comparable to ours. Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Bellingen and Nambucca council areas have implemented FOGO and fortnightly rubbish collections. However, their rubbish bins are 100L larger than the ones provided by our government. As a consequence, they are of course, able to fit more rubbish in their bins between collections and deal better with fortnightly pickups.

Now, Labor and the Greens have recognised that bin size might be a problem and have said there will be the option for Canberrans to get a bigger bin, but surprise surprise, there will be a monthly tax on it, on top of rates. This is their solution to everything. How does this take into account social justice, at all? It does not. It is rank hypocrisy.

In the Southern Grampians in Victoria, where they also have FOGO, there is a one-off payment of $85 to buy a bigger bin. That’s it. Once you’ve paid it, it’s yours. What our government wants to do is cut your service and then charge you a monthly tax to deal with the ramifications of their decision.

This will be an unfair and targeted tax on families.

You don’t need to be a high-level policy analyst to know which groups will be most impacted by this change. Families will be the ones most harmed by this, especially families with infants.

The government will also claim that they have received positive feedback which has informed their decision to change to fortnightly rubbish collections. Using ABS data, it is interesting to note that the suburbs the government specifically targeted for this trial have a lower average rate of people-per-household and a lower average rate of children between 0-4 when compared to the rest of the Ginninderra electorate. These smaller and demographically older households would naturally produce less household waste making them less reliant on weekly rubbish collections, and therefore, more likely to be receptive to reduced rubbish collection giving the government the pretext they need to cut services. If the government had chosen suburbs with a higher proportion of young children and more people per household, like Dunlop or Macgregor they would have heard a much different story.

In other words, the government neglected to trial FOGO in areas that would be the most harmed by a reduction in rubbish collections. This is not good governance.

Madam Speaker, the intentions of FOGO are good, but the move to reduce rubbish collections will be harmful to many families and is based on questionable evidence. On behalf of these families, I commend this motion to the Assembly. Thank you.