Page 3504 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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This report follows the issuing of a discussion paper entitled "The Burning Question" some months ago, and it builds on additional comments that have been received since that time to make its recommendations today. There has been some modification of our views, based on the comments and views received from members of the public since that time.
Other reports currently being prepared by the Conservation, Heritage and Environment Committee include reports on housing design in the Territory, on energy planning and energy use, and on rural leases. To some extent, this report relates to those three other issues; not so much rural leases, but certainly we have connections between this report and the other two areas we have been examining. Obviously, they are integrated and need to be kept in train in order to make the maximum impact on environmental problems caused in this area.
We discussed, in the course of debate yesterday on, I think, the Publications Control (Amendment) Bill, the balance between rights and obligations, and I think we do so again, to some extent, today. The ownership of a wood heater, a stove or an open fire does obviously affect the amenity and quality of life in this Territory, but it also imposes obligations on us. Unfortunately, we have long passed the stage where the use of a wood heater or appliance in one's home was a matter purely for the user and not for those around him or her. Today the use of those appliances has an intimate effect on those around them and also on the environment of our Territory as a whole.
I believe that the use of those heaters is generally very responsible. I believe that there are only isolated cases of inefficient or lazy use of heating appliances. Most people in the Territory who have such facilities use them responsibly, understand the value of dry wood, of seasoned wood, and of cleaning the appliances, et cetera, on a regular basis. I think we are therefore addressing the problems caused by, for the most part, isolated users and the problem of the ignorance of those users and certain other people.
I think, Mr Acting Speaker, that education is the main thrust of this report - it is to educate people in the appropriate use of these appliances and to ensure that in the long term we achieve the goals that we need to achieve in improving the quality of our environment and the quality of use of these appliances through education rather than through coercion. There are other opportunities, of course, to enforce the message.
Inspection of heaters is mooted in the report. We, to some extent, have the capacity at the present time for patrols around the suburbs, for people to watch out for excessively smoky chimneys. We have the opportunity mentioned in the report to regulate suppliers of wood and to control
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