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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3094 ..

Mr Moore: Did you draw attention to the fact there are no Government members at all in the chamber?

MR WHITECROSS: Yes, I did. As you rightly point out, Mr Moore, there are no Government members here, which is a measure of their interest, perhaps. Anyway!

Mr Moore: It is a pity they cannot take the lead from the Speaker, who comes from the same party.

MR WHITECROSS: Yes. Mr Speaker, a healthy public transport system which would encourage people to catch buses rather than drive their cars, of course, would be a good start in terms of policy under the control of the local government, the ACT Government, which could make a contribution to reducing increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Speaker, another one which is a constant source of concern to me is the enthusiasm with which our ACT Government-owned energy company, ACTEW, waxes lyrical whenever we have a cold year and the electricity consumption goes up, because it is fantastic for their bottom line and their profits go up. Of course, I would be the last one to complain about ACTEW making a profit, Mr Speaker, but there has to be something intrinsically wrong with the system where we think we have had a good year when we burn more greenhouse gases and consume more electricity. We should not regard that as a good result and we should be looking at strategies whereby ACTEW Corporation can derive income from actually getting people to consume less electricity rather than more electricity.

At the last election, we had among our policies a policy of ACTEW using low interest loans as a way of encouraging people to purchase energy-saving technologies. I think that is a positive way.

Mr Moore: Why not put it up and we will support it?

MR WHITECROSS: It is up to ACTEW. But the point is that it is something that would make a positive contribution on greenhouse gas emissions, and we need to do more things like that. Mr Moore is volunteering to implement another one of our policies. I will talk to him about that later. Mr Speaker, we need to do more things like that which are proactive and creative and where we can at our local level, the ACT Government level, make a contribution to this issue. I commend the motion. The exercise of identifying what our emissions are and then setting targets is obviously a good one for us to engage in and a positive step forward. I commend the motion.

MR MOORE (5.28): Mr Speaker, I would like to rise and congratulate Ms Tucker on putting up this motion. (Quorum formed) Mr Speaker, it is a change to have a few Government members in here. The exception is Mr Kaine, who, of course, has been here keeping an eye on the fort.

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