Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Saturday I held the first of what I hope will be many successful community forums at the Belgrave South Progress Hall in my electorate of La Trobe. There was a fantastic turnout at the day-long community event, which heard from climate change experts, local school students, local environmental groups and community organisations.

The first session of the day was titled 'Carbon and our future' and was presented by Corey Watts of the Climate Institute, who gave an insightful presentation. He explained why carbon has such a significant and detrimental impact on our environment and is such a contributor to climate change.

The participants in the forum and all of those who attended, and there were certainly many, had an opportunity to talk about the government's carbon price plan and the potential that it has not only to benefit our environment but certainly to transform our economy for the better.

The second session of the day focused on clean energy jobs and it was presented by Will McGoldrick of the Climate Institute, who gave a comprehensive insight into clean energy jobs, where they are being created and where they are likely to be created in future, benefiting Australian workers and certainly benefiting our economy. Will explained the importance of moving to a clean energy economy, not only for its positive environmental outcomes but also for Australia's long-term financial prosperity and security and for the jobs of all Australians.

The third session of the day focused on issues closer to home in terms of the Dandenong Ranges. It focused on biodiversity in our area of La Trobe. Seven representatives from local councils, environmental groups and Landcare groups gave their perspective on what is happening locally to protect native species and what they would like to see happen to promote biodiversity in our area. Again, the level of interest from the broader community was great. Frankly, I was quite overwhelmed by the interest shown, both in attendee numbers and in the response that was received by my office. I really hope that it will assist some of our local community groups and environmental and Landcare groups to attract some new volunteers to help revegetate environmentally sensitive parts of the region.

For later in the day I had arranged a special young future leaders session, which gave a chance for 15 students from seven schools within the electorate to have their say on issues of national importance. It was fascinating to watch. I say that I watched it, because at that stage I was very happy to call upon the excellent abilities of Chris Varney, a former Australian Youth Representative to the UN and a former Ferntree Gully resident, who was able to chair the session. It certainly encouraged the students to make their voices heard on issues relating to climate, the participation of young people in our democracy, compulsory voting and a range of other matters. I must say it brought home to me that we really do not have enough opportunities to hear from young people right across all electorates about their views on national issues, and they are incredibly important. I certainly value the opinions which the students shared with me at Saturday's community forum, and I will be looking for more opportunities to hear from young people in our area in the future. In that regard, I should also note that I have received quite a bit of correspondence from Hillcrest Christian College, specifically Mr Nathan Pither and the grade 4 class, 4P, which has written to me collectively urging action on issues relating to our environment. So I am very pleased to be able to make mention of them today and say that I hope to engage with them and with other students and young people in my electorate in future on these important issues.

Wrapping up the community forum were representatives from the Global Poverty Project, World Vision's VGen and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, who gave interested residents and community groups the skills to build effective community campaigns about local and national issues of importance to them. The forum was really a chance to hear from residents who were concerned about the damaging and harmful effects of climate change in our local environment.

People are concerned about the future of our environment and the future of their children. I organised this community forum specifically to give those residents a chance to hear from experts about climate change and the way that a carbon price will transform our economy. We have had far too much of Tony Abbott's scaremongering about climate change. I know that people locally want to have a calm, rational discussion about these important issues, and that is what Saturday's forum was all about. I hope to have other opportunities to do the same in future.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for La Trobe but would remind her of the provisions of standing order 64, which provide that she ought to refer to the Leader of the Opposition by his title and not by his name.

Question agreed to.

Main Committee adjourned at 13:01