Page 5800 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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months to get here. This flowed from the high concentration of lead that was polluting the atmosphere in certain parts of Civic Centre, not in Tuggeranong, and is the cause of some concern, as it is elsewhere in the world. That is not to say, of course, that we do not have some concern for the lead content polluting the atmosphere right across the ACT.
This Bill makes the sale of country grade, high lead concentration petrol illegal in the ACT, except when the Minister has to issue a waiver for some emergency. I presume that that would apply only if there was no other petrol available and they were going to ground the whole ACT Government fleet or something. So, it is a fairly straightforward amendment. It has the support of the Liberal Party, as it did when we were in government. I commend the Government for bringing forward yet another piece of our legislation.
MR JENSEN (4.53): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will be brief.
Mr Wood: Your speech has been given.
MR JENSEN: No, it has not.
Mr Kaine: He is going to say it again and he is going to use up 11 minutes and 35 seconds, or whatever is left.
MR JENSEN: No, I am not. One of the main factors we have to consider in relation to any legislation relating to pollution control is ensuring that the Environment Protection Services are properly funded to carry out the monitoring that is required in this very important area. I think that has been a problem in the past. I think we need to look at not just the issue of lead in petrol but also general air pollution. In view of the risk of being accused of speaking off the subject, I will not go down that path today.
As Mr Kaine has already indicated, my colleague Mr Collaery was probably too shy to make any comments about the role he and Mr Duby played in exposing the fiction put about by the oil companies about lead levels in the ACT and their inability to provide city grade petrol for the ACT. I think the oil companies very quickly found during the negotiations that those two Ministers were not prepared to be walked over by the big companies. They argued their point very strongly.
I seem to recall the oil companies saying, "We cannot provide you with city grade petrol; we do not have enough of it". When a piece of paper was put on the deck saying, "You have; here are your figures for the last X months and you have been producing so much city grade petrol that you do not know what to do with it", it took the wind right out of their sails. That was one of the reasons why the oil companies very quickly toed the line, so to speak, and dragged themselves kicking and screaming into the twentieth century in relation to lead levels in the ACT.
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