Thursday, 16 November 2023

More Trees for a Cooler, Greener West

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (18:12): (607) My matter is for the Minister for Environment. With climate change, in my electorate in the west where the land is bare and natural foliage and trees are scarce, tree canopy cover is important not only for biodiversity, cleaner air and shade but also for cooling and preventing urban heat island effects. Currently there is only 5.5 per cent tree canopy cover in the west – the lowest in Melbourne. This is compared to the north, which has 12 per cent tree canopy cover, and the east, which has 25 per cent cover. To address this, the coalition committed at the last election to planting 2 million trees, because this side of the chamber understands the importance of greening the environment as the suburbs grow. So the action I seek is for the minister to increase the number of trees planted in phase 4 of the More Trees for a Cooler, Greener West program and also make the program available to private residents who want to plant trees in their backyards.

In 2021 the government announced a new project to plant 500,000 trees in four phases across the western suburbs to assist in addressing this issue. To date in 2023, after phase 3, only 325,000 trees have been planted – almost 200,000 short of its goal. In the next phase, phase 4, it is only planning to plant 56,000 trees. This is well short of the 500,000 target. Phase 4 of the program only provides for trees to be planted in parks, reserves and some streets. The Greening the West strategy states that it is essential to increase the level of vegetation on private residential land. To have an impact on urban heat effects, there must be trees amongst houses and buildings to provide shade and cooling. The north-east greening program provides for backyard tree planting, so I urge the minister to provide the same in the west, and I ask the government to deliver the 500,000 trees it promised.