Page 6052 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
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I think it is also worth referring to clause 9 of the Bill, which says:
A person shall not, without reasonable excuse, deal with, use or manufacture an ozone depleting substance -
at all - those are my words -
after the prescribed date.
So, irrespective of whether a licence has been granted, after this prescribed date any person who uses an ozone depleting substance commits an offence. This goes well beyond just telling manufacturers that they must phase out their manufacture of ozone depleting substances by 1994, the year 2000, or whatever the prescribed date is going to be. It goes to the heart of ensuring that everybody who uses ozone depleting substances, or who has an appliance with ozone depleting substances which might be caught by the Act, is advised before the prescribed date that after that prescribed date it will be an offence to use those substances.
This is a very wide onus to place on government. I rather suspect that we will be looking to a very long-term prescribed date if we expect to not catch all those people who presently might be using, in one way or another, an ozone depleting substance - as I suspect every person in this room and in this gallery is at the present time.
Mr Berry: No, I am not using one right now.
MR HUMPHRIES: You are not using one right now, but I am sure that at home your refrigerator is ticking over, keeping your food cool, Mr Berry, and using ozone depleting substances at the same time.
As I said, it is extremely important for us to be careful about the way in which we grant such broad powers, even powers to protect something as important to us as the environment. The Liberal Party, on balance, supports the concept of giving wide powers, but believes that the Government must exercise restraint, it must take care and it must be vigilant, particularly in respect of officers of the Pollution Control Authority who might at various stages have cause to exercise these powers, to ensure that those powers are not abused. I believe that, if that can be achieved, this legislation will achieve its aims.
MR JENSEN (4.27): As my colleague Mr Humphries has indicated, this is an important Bill, one which I know has been developed over time and successive governments. It certainly was foreshadowed in the discussion paper on developing an ACT strategy to respond to the greenhouse effect. This Bill brings some of those recommendations for legislation into effect.
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