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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 440 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

According to the ACT State of the Environment Report, up to 150,000 tonnes of wood is burnt each year in domestic heating - obviously, a small forest of wood each year. Aside from the fact that much of the wood has ended up as polluting smoke, there are serious problems also with the source of the timber. Commercial pressures on our native forests are already too great, and that fact unfortunately has not been recognised by major parties in the debate on logging of our native forests. Firewood is the second most important threat to native forests after woodchipping. The Greens intend to introduce into the Assembly later this year legislation to provide consumers with more information about the origin of timbers they purchase for firewood. The legislation is about labelling and the licensing of firewood vendors.

Last year we worked to promote the use of plantation pine as a source of firewood, rather than the habitat trees from forests and, indeed, from private properties on the western plains. With this legislation, the Government has recognised that education combined with legislation is required to reduce the winter smoke haze. Going back to the source of the wood, at the moment there is a common belief that burning pine in your fireplace will make the chimney clog up and produce less heat and, indeed, produce more smoke. In fact, this is not true. ACT Forests produce a pamphlet every winter, which they distribute widely. This pamphlet talks about the fact that pine does not clog up your chimney, it does not produce more smoke, and you do not need to use more of the pine. Weight for weight, you need to burn more; but the heat that is produced is equivalent to the heat produced from hardwood, if you equate the weight of the timber. Our legislation will be targeted at educating the public about what they are purchasing. It is about labelling and, with the initiative taken in this Bill and with our legislation, wood heaters in the ACT will pollute the atmosphere less and, hopefully, the timber that is used will be more environmentally friendly.

MR WOOD (5.05): Mr Speaker, I am pleased that this legislation is before the house and will shortly be passed and put into effect. The Minister in his response might indicate how his community consultation is to be done. In his introductory speech, he indicated that he would be talking to the ACT community to draw up the standards that should apply in this matter. He said that this would be in place before winter. Winter is not very far from us, and I will be looking for a report today on how that is going and whether those standards will shortly be advertised in the paper so that people know what they may or may not emit from their chimneys.

As legislators, we all know that the community is becoming much more demanding. They are requiring greater protection from all forms of pollution; we see it in many matters that come before us. As a member from Tuggeranong, I well know the concerns in that part of the world about the smoke pollution from wood fires that hangs over the suburbs in the early morning, and perhaps in the evening, during the winter.

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