Page 2887 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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officials from the Environment Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate and the Suburban Land Agency. The committee’s report made seven recommendations. The committee was of the view that, due to major policy changes proposed in the bill, it was important to conduct this inquiry to review this piece of legislation, which is due to be followed by subsequent pieces of legislation.
The committee supports the bill on the basis that it be subject to the amendments proposed in this report. Mr Ed Cocks MLA, presented a dissenting report. On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank everyone who participated and assisted with the inquiry. I commend the report to the Assembly.
MR COCKS (Murrumbidgee) (5.02): I wish to briefly note my dissent from recommendations 3 and 7 of this report. I cannot support any recommendation that further impacts redevelopment and uplift of our suburbs, and I cannot support a recommendation in favour of the government’s gas ban.
While there is very clear, strong evidence that we have considered, which shows that there are emissions impacts from natural gas use, that does not necessarily provide the evidence needed to support the government’s bill. Indeed, most of the submissions received did not express support for the government’s gas ban, and most—80 per cent of them—indicated concerns about implementation issues with the bill.
I therefore cannot support those two recommendations. Instead, I recommend that the Assembly not pass the Climate Change and Greenhouse Reduction (Natural Gas Transition) Amendment Bill 2022, and the government instead consult with the full range of stakeholders to identify alternative approaches to reducing natural gas usage without imposing permanent barriers to the adoption of future technological advances in areas such as green gas or hydrogen.
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (5.04): I am speaking in my personal capacity as an MLA here. I just want to mention that a lot of us are new members, and we are very busy. Some of us newer than others. I wanted to make sure that everybody has had a chance to review the evidence that is published, because I think it is important that we have it. We have Powering Canberra: Our Pathway to Electrification, the ACT government position paper which was submitted to the committee. It is on the website. A lot of the modelling that goes behind that is actually up on the website. On the website, we have the modelling of the ACT energy systems, the retail price impacts of gas transition and the base case report. We have the strategic report up there. We have the gas transition utility impact statement up there, the green gas trading tool, the household energy choices modelling and analysis, and the electricity and gas networks assessment. I just wanted to make sure, for the benefit of Hansard, and anybody listening and anybody here who is considering this issue, that people know that a lot of the modelling is there. Maybe jump onto the website and have a look.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Health and Community Wellbeing—Standing Committee
Report 8
MS DAVIS (Brindabella) (5.05): I present the following report:
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