Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Baird Liberal government is engaging in one of Sydney's worst cases of environmental vandalism. Over the last four months, the Liberals have been chainsawing down centuries-old fig trees that line Alison Road in Randwick and Anzac Parade at Moore Park, adjacent to the SCG, to build a light rail line. This is needless environmental destruction. We can have light rail and preserve these historic trees that are part of Sydney's heritage and character. In 1914, when troops marched from Kensington Racecourse to Circular Quay, they walked past these trees, and in 1917 Randwick Road was renamed Anzac Parade in their honour.

The people of Sydney are justifiably outraged by the destruction of these trees in parkland bequeathed to the people two centuries ago by Lachlan Macquarie. One thousand six hundred people in our community have signed an open letter to you, Prime Minister, calling on you to intervene and stop the destruction of Sydney's historic trees. In 2010, you described these trees and this parkland as the 'great green lungs of our city'. It is time for you to put your money where your mouth is. On behalf of the people of Sydney, I ask: will you call on Mike Baird to halt this destruction? We can have the light rail project and preserve Sydney's historic trees, and I call on you to do something about it.

See this speech in context