Page 3496 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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improved in a series of obvious ways. The first is by insulation. Siting and how we set our windows is also significant. That applies not only to new constructions. People who are building extensions to their houses can take advantage of large windows on the northern side and a series of other carefully set out designs to make their houses energy efficient by storing energy, such as the energy from the sun that comes through the windows, and therefore reducing the need for heating to a minimum.
The report that is currently before you has come about following long preparation by this committee. I would like to thank the previous two chairs of the Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment. The first chair, Mr Gary Humphries, was responsible for the initial discussion and work on fuel heating in the ACT. Thanks are appropriate there. Dr Hector Kinloch was chair of the committee when the draft discussion paper called "The Burning Question" went out. Thanks are due for the work that he did in getting that ready.
Thanks are extended to Mr Bill Symington, the secretary of the committee, who worked very long and hard in the preparation of the report, and to those who assisted him. Those thanks also extend back to Ms Peta Roberts, who was the secretary of the committee when this responsibility was taken on.
I think thanks are also due to those who responded to "The Burning Question" and who originally provided comments to the committee. Rather than name them, I will just keep it to one particular person, that is, Dr John Todd of Tasmania. He probably is the foremost expert in this area in Australia. He is one of the world experts on fuelwood heating. His contribution to the committee requires particular recognition.
This report is about sustainability. It looks into the future to try to determine how we can find ways and means of keeping ourselves warm without using non-renewable resources, without denuding our forests, and ensuring that the wood that we are going to use can be grown beforehand so that we have a renewable resource that we can rely on as a community.
MR JENSEN (10.47): Mr Acting Speaker, this is a very important report. Much of the work had been done by the previous committee, chaired by my colleague Dr Kinloch, which produced a discussion paper which resulted in a large number of responses, many of them very detailed. Those responses were drawn upon by the new committee in the preparation of its final report, as was the discussion paper, "The Burning Question", produced by the previous committee. It was a very good initiative on behalf of this Assembly for a committee to raise an issue like that out in the community and encourage discussion and debate on a very important matter.
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