Page 861 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 March 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR DUBY: I think that has already been answered in the response to the thrust of the main question, Mr Speaker. As I said, consultations have occurred with users. There are going to be further meetings with the Chamber of Commerce later this week. At this stage, the likely outcome is that an express service between Civic and Fyshwick shall be reintroduced, the exact time of which I am not able to say. It is surprising how many people now indicate a willingness to catch the express service, whereas when the service was running they somehow managed to miss the bus.
Mr Kaine: I request that any further questions be placed on the notice paper.
Thermal Insulation in New Buildings
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I would like to provide the answers to a couple of questions that I had taken on notice previously. The first of those was from Mrs Grassby. On 20 February she asked me about the incorporation of thermal insulation in new buildings, and she asked that question with reference to our environment strategy paper that we released last year. Mr Speaker, as I made clear in my ministerial statement last April when I tabled the paper entitled, "Developing an ACT Strategy to Respond to the Greenhouse Effect", the paper was released as a discussion paper. There was no commitment from the Government to do anything. It was a discussion paper and remains so.
I stated at the same time that the Government would await the report of the Assembly Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment on an integrated energy resources environment strategy, and the outcome of community consultations, before finalising its position on the issues raised in that paper. There was extensive community comment on the discussion paper, but I understand that the committee report will not now be finalised until the second half of this year. So, I do not want to anticipate what that committee might come up with. As Mrs Grassby noted, the paper proposed requiring the incorporation of thermal insulation in new buildings, and a working group of officials will shortly report to the Government on options for an energy conservation strategy.
Whilst energy conservation is one of the most effective ways that the ACT can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Government is also conscious of the cost implications for home buyers, including first home buyers. A further issue is that the ACT's building regulations reflect the standards of the building code of Australia which has been agreed by all States and Territories, and these standards do not, at the moment, require thermal insulation.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .