Page 1635 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 May 1990
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major environmental problem to which I have referred relates to the significant changes to climate and sea levels and how these are likely to impact on Australia - particularly as much of the population is concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Ms Follett has already made some comments about the effect that that could have on the ACT.
If we go back to the prehistory of Australia we note that there were times when there was much more dry land available for people to move about on, but that is another story. That is another problem in relation to the past history of this continent. However, the changes will affect Canberra through flood patterns and increases in extremes of temperature. They may also create indirect pressures on this Territory if there is an inward migration from coastal areas. In other words, there will be much the same sorts of pressures as those that happened to the pre-contact people of Australia when the rising seas forced them to leave the coastal plains and move inland; the sorts of pressures that were caused amongst the various Aboriginal tribes of this continent at the time. Those are the sorts of pressures that we are talking about - in a different form, but there is a similar relationship.
The Alliance Government believes it is essential that there be informed community debate on such a major environmental issue. Community input is an integral part of the Government's decision making on important issues. On issues such as the environment, government can only do so much to alter people's behaviour and lifestyle. Ultimately, the community - as individuals, households and businesses - has to change its own priorities. The more the community understands the problem, the more it is able to contribute to its solution. That is what the issue is really about - the effect on the environment of certain human activities.
In the latest issue of Choice magazine, which was delivered to my door yesterday, there is a very good report on saving energy in your home. This, as we know, has a major effect on the greenhouse gases. For example, carbon dioxide is emitted from different energy sources. If we use gas to heat our homes or do our cooking we produce only 46 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of gas used, as opposed to coal-fired electricity which produces 231 grams. There is a major difference. As we know, the electricity for the ACT now comes from the New South Wales grid. We used to have a certain amount of electricity from the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme. My understanding is that that electricity now goes into the grid and we draw from that in general. Therefore, by using electricity to heat our homes we are in fact contributing quite markedly to the greenhouse effect.
The interesting point is that, while the population of Australia is very small, the country is very small and we contribute less than one per cent to the overall effect of greenhouse gases on the environment, that figure is quite
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