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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3092 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

reference to things like the strategy to reduce the amount of landfill in the Territory and moves that encourage recycling, which has some impact on those issues as well. Of course, in the context of the Mugga Lane and Belconnen tips, there is some work going on at the moment about the harvesting of methane from those sites, which will be another contributor.

Mr Speaker, let me make a reference to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ms Tucker made a comment about the position of the Australian Government at the Geneva convention in July this year where the Australian delegation, headed by Senator Hill, indicated that it wished to retard the march towards the targets that had previously been set and to pull back on the work being done in those areas. I must say that I have no problem in indicating my disappointment at having heard Senator Hill take that position initially to the climate conference. It is, I think, still relatively easy for Australia to comply with those sorts of requirements. It does not mean it is going to be easy overall. Let us face the fact: Stopping or reducing greenhouse gas emissions is going to be a huge task for a large number of nations around the world. But let us be clear that the advanced level of industrial technology available in developed countries like Australia makes the conversion to alternative systems which are less productive of greenhouse gases so much easier for us than, for example, a number of developing nations which are dependent on certain, sometimes outdated, sometimes heavily greenhouse gas producing, forms of technology to provide basic industrial processes and so on.

It disappointed me, frankly, that the Australian Government was not prepared to go to the conference and offer leadership in those areas, when it would have been extremely easy to do so, relative to other nations who were attending the conference. I note that there was some withdrawal from that position by the Australian Government after some reaction, both domestically and at the conference, to the revised Government position. I hope that that change of heart represents the permanent position of the Australian Government, because I think we have a duty to all the people of the world, particularly those in our region who have perhaps more to lose than most from the unbridled increase in or the maintenance of levels of greenhouse emissions, to do something about this problem.

I said before that I would provide more information on the Government's leading role in the local government review of the national greenhouse response strategy. Since the review of the strategy commenced it has been recognised that the existing strategy really does not adequately address the role of local government, and that needs to be addressed. Local government produces probably over 50 per cent of national emissions, and if we consider that huge contribution it is perhaps arguable that the debate about greenhouse gas emissions should be taking place not in State or national parliaments but in the chambers of councils of shires, cities and municipalities all over this nation, because that is, in a sense, the real cockpit of greenhouse gas emission in this country.

The limited funding and the parochial focus of local government often mean it needs to receive help to take effective action, and that is why we cannot simply leave it to local government to form targets. As a local government unit, in a sense, which contains both State and local government levels of response to issues like that and which has the capacity to deal with those issues at both levels, we should be setting an example of what we can achieve once we have the appropriate information at our disposal. That is why the motion that Ms Tucker has put before the chamber, I think, deserves to be supported.

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