Page 3044 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 September 1993
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MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (9.02), in reply: Madam Speaker, I thank members for their positive comments. I think the greenhouse strategy has been favourably received by the two members who spoke and I think that is justifiable in terms of the content of the document. Mr Moore referred to the Australian Conservation Foundation's comments about the labelling of appliances. It is the case that it can be argued that we are a bit slow on this, and I take note of that. I think that in almost everything we are ahead of the field. It is certainly my intention to be so. If we are not, I will take action.
The fact is that we in the ACT have been pacing ourselves, expecting that we will legislate when national standards are available, and that process is working through. A number of the States have not waited for that to happen. In fact, I understand that New South Wales has had legislation for quite some time. From talking to the two or three agencies of the ACT Government that are involved in this, it may be that we will introduce legislation, introduce some of the standards that are available now, since these are incorporated in regulations, and when the national standards become available we will act accordingly. I know what Mr Moore says about insulation. Again, we have to take some account of home buyers. We have had this argument before, have we not? They can adjust their insulation in the ceiling quite readily, whereas they cannot in the walls.
I thank Mr Westende for his comments. He made some points about leaded petrol and I thought he presented a good point that I had not picked up before about people with cars using leaded petrol. I am certainly aware that their value already has depreciated and that certainly is not an encouragement, even if you have the money or are getting close to having the money to trade in on a vehicle using unleaded petrol. I should point out that, when the Federal Minister had her lead summit about a month or six weeks ago, the ACT representative, one of our public servants, made the point that the ACT Government did not support the proposed extra tax on petrol. We believed, in terms of equity, that it was not justifiable, and the Government has not deviated from that point.
I note Mr Westende's words of caution about global warming. It is true that temperature variations are a natural part of the world's climate and they cannot really be assessed in the short term. The fact is that we have to be alert to problems. Since these are very sensible measures in any case, as Mr Westende indicated, it is wise to take those steps. The policy is one of no regrets. They are good measures and it is sensible to take them.
Members will be pleased to know that since I tabled the ACT greenhouse strategy in May, some months ago, there has been progress on a number of initiatives, and I should spell those out to you. For example, the Territory Plan contains a number of requirements with respect to energy matters which will assist the ACT to achieve its greenhouse objectives. Included in the Territory Plan is the requirement for the submission of energy audits.
Mr Lamont: A great document.
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