Greening the West
Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (13:59): The Victorian Treasurer just handed down the budget for 2022–23, and he quoted at the end of his speech an ancient Greek saying: ‘A society grows great when old people plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in’. I had the great pleasure, on that very subject, to welcome the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change to my electorate a fortnight ago at the social enterprise Ecodynamics to talk about our Greening the West initiative, where we are going to plant more than 500 000 trees over the coming years. It is really important, and the pandemic has shown how important spending time in nature and open space is. In my electorate, from Aberfeldie Park to Brimbank Park to the Green Spine linear park in Airport West, this Greening the West initiative will go a long way to ensuring that we have a cleaner, greener, safer community.
I also had the great pleasure of having with me Nick Somes from Ecodynamics as well as Horseshoe Bend ward councillors Virginia Tachos and Jae Papalia, and Jasmine Nguyen, the mayor of the City of Brimbank. Can I also say that a great highlight for me was having the founding members of the new Horseshoe Bend Community Group, Cynthia Frayne and David Monty, there on behalf of their group that is doing outstanding work with the Wurundjeri corporation to ensure that Brimbank Park, in particular Horseshoe Bend Park, caters for future generations in Melbourne’s north-west. We know trees are key to a healthier and happier community.