Page 2452 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2022
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change budget. And this Assembly agrees; it declared in a resolution from all three parties that we are in a climate emergency.
So-called natural gas is responsible for around a fifth of the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions. The gas transition is one of many changes we need to make for our future, in response to the existential threat of climate change. As with all our policies, climate change or otherwise, people must remain front and centre. This is a critical element of these initiatives. We will ensure that the transition is fair and just, and that we look after our most vulnerable as the transition unfolds.
Gas is expensive. Right now, living in an all-electric home can deliver residents significant financial savings. I am pleased to say that this budget supports its big transition plans with a range of supportive household energy support projects, like the $50 million Vulnerable Household Energy Support Scheme, covering both public and private housing. This is another of our key election commitments, and it is important to advance this in conjunction with the broader gas transition. The government, too, has committed to the transition in its own actions, reflected in the new project funding to ensure that its own facilities transition to renewable electricity.
In a similar fashion, the ACT is transitioning away from polluting internal combustion engine vehicles to clean zero emission vehicles. The same transition is happening in heavy vehicles like buses and garbage trucks. Transport makes up around 60 per cent of the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions. This transition will occur in the ACT over the next decade, supported by government targets and investment and bolstered by incentives for purchasers of these vehicles.
Not only are EVs zero emissions, as they recharge using our 100 per cent renewable electricity supply; they are also significantly cheaper to own and operate, compared to a petrol vehicle. Just like the gas transition, this is a transition that we need to commence now, that will occur over time and that has at its heart care for the environment and concern for people and the community.
Let me reiterate this point. This budget continues to invest in bold transitions that are forward-thinking, that put people and the environment at their centre and that are key policy goals and election commitments of the Greens. The Greens here in the Assembly are proud to be pushing our government partners to be leaders on these significant issues.
Having said that, and as I have noted in previous years, this is not the exact budget that would be delivered if the Greens were leading the government. We work in a power-sharing, collaborative government, and that involves debate and compromise. We cannot expect the budget to reflect everything that we would want. We respect and appreciate our Labor partners. But, also, we consistently strive to move to improve government policies and to reflect these in the ACT budget.
We are making progress. Instead of the ship chugging relentlessly in the same direction, we are pulling on the steering wheel, turning its course toward sustainability, community wellbeing, long-term policy thinking and bold climate change action. We are keeping the focus on critical challenges like climate change, the biodiversity and extinction crisis, the housing crisis and the plight of our most vulnerable.
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