Tuesday, 2 August 2022

 Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Minister for Business Precincts) (13:05): Deputy Speaker, congratulations on your elevation to the role. On Sunday I joined committed environmental custodians in my local community at Canning Reserve, Avondale Heights, to celebrate National Tree Day. National Tree Day is all about inspiring, educating and recruiting future custodians for this one planet we have.

I joined keen volunteers who braved the freezing cold and the freezing wind to plant 3000 trees at Canning Reserve, Avondale Heights. Most importantly we are not stopping there, because we are planning to do 500 000 trees across our western suburbs as part of a $5 million commitment from the Andrews government for the cooler, greener west initiative. Why are we doing this in Melbourne’s west, you may ask. Well, Melbourne’s west has far less tree canopy cover than the east and the south-east. Because of this, the western suburbs experience the greatest urban heat island across metropolitan Melbourne. With our initiative and our $5 million investment we are going to change that, and one of the best methods is what we did on Sunday with the local community—planting more trees.

I want to thank Planet Ark. I want to thank the Rotarians from Keilor East and Flemington. I want to thank the mayor of Moonee Valley. I also want to thank the member for Essendon for coming and also the Rotarians that supplied all the hungry planters with all the sausages and the barbecue that were so well deserved by everyone. The local community members came out last Sunday and gave their time, and I am truly grateful for their planting of trees for future generations.