The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is Working to Help the Environment

Greening Australia Presentation, 28 July 2005:

Acceptance Speech by Michael L'Estrange, Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

MICHAEL L'ESTRANGE: Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much, Mark, for those comments which are greatly appreciated. And can I say, on behalf of the department, how delighted we are to be involved with the initiative that you described today.

I understand that as a result of the involvement of people in this department and the initiative of Café Brindabella and the direction and help of Greening Australia, something like 1500 trees were planted, mainly silver wattle, blackwood, yellow box, and despite the very difficult conditions we've had in Canberra over recent times, something like 95 per cent of those trees survive and hopefully will grow and will be a visual reminder of the difference that a relatively small group of people can make to a common endeavour.

And I think what we've done with you and with Café Brindabella is a very powerful reminder that the environment though scarred can be restored, that the work is ongoing, and that the recovery from the terrible bushfires can continue. And I think all of that is both an important environmental achievement and a very important community achievement.

So we are very grateful for the opportunity that our staff members had to participate in this exercise and we're very grateful to the coordination that you and others facilitated. In particular I'd like to say to the members of the department who have bent their backs and dirtied their hands in this exercise, a very warm appreciation for your hands-on commitment, and the very grateful thanks of all of us for what you achieved.

This is not just a one-off for the department. We do have an environmental management system which we believe is very activist and focused. We're very committed to a strong recycling policy, to reducing energy and water consumption, to environmental criteria in terms of our business practices and IT systems. And again, like the tree planting initiative, I think all of this can be done from the ground up. Every person can make a difference and we certainly encourage everyone to try.

Finally can I say a very warm thank you to Café Brindabella for its initiative in this whole process. For a long time now it's been very environmentally conscious as well as, you can see today, providing a great service to our staff and to members of the public who are visiting the department. And in particular it has done some unspectacular but important environmental initiatives. When you think about the system it's designed for its organic waste to go to worm farms, there's some very well fed worms around Canberra! But over and above that, Mark, as you referred to the coffee cup initiative, I think this was a very innovative way to engender support for tree planting. As I understand it, something over $11,000 has been made available for additional native tree planting in the Canberra area as a result of this initiative.

So I'd like to very warmly thank Café Brindabella for what it's done. I'd like to thank all the staff of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for its support of the initiative, for those who worked so hard on this particular project, and also to Greening Australia for its recognition of the efforts we've put in. We'll certainly look at this plaque and look back not just on what we see as a significant achievement with you, but hopefully as an encouragement for the future. And I understand the next tree planting exercise takes place on 11 September and we'll certainly publicise that as well as we can.

So thank you again, Mark, for this recognition. We very greatly appreciate it. Thank you everyone at DFAT and to Café Brindabella.