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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (9 April) . . Page.. 788 ..

Mr Corbell: So you do not agree with him?

MR HUMPHRIES: If you let me finish, Mr Corbell, you will get your answer. I am sure that Mr Corbell would not like to bind himself to that kind of undertaking. On the issue of having written to the Federal Attorney-General, I do not believe I have written to the Federal Attorney-General. I have written to the Federal Minister for the Environment about that issue. I will take the letter out and, if it is appropriate, I will table it in this place.

MS HORODNY: My question is to the Chief Minister in her role as Treasurer and also as one of the shareholders of ACTEW. Recently, Mrs Carnell, I was reading the Liberal Party's policy statement on the environment that you released for the 1995 elections. I noticed that it says that a Liberal government will "provide a rebate to residents who install rainwater tanks at their place of residence". It also says that a Liberal government will "encourage ACTEW to facilitate the greater use of rainwater tanks by residents, particularly for outdoor purposes". Could you tell me, Mrs Carnell, what your Government is doing to implement these promises?

MRS CARNELL: Just hang in. Wait and see. Wait for the budget.

MS HORODNY: I ask a supplementary question. That was a very clear answer. Thank you for that, Mrs Carnell. Could you tell us whether you are also ensuring that ACTEW monitors water use by the ACT Government to identify and eliminate waste, as you also promised in your policy statement?

MRS CARNELL: I understand that ACTEW are doing that. In fact, environmental audits of ACT government buildings are ongoing. Better use of energy and better use of water are things that we are encouraging ACTEW to become more involved with. They are already doing that. A section of ACTEW - I think it is in Ecowise - are doing the environmental audits, I understand with great success. I understand that there has been some success already in decreasing power use and water use, particularly in government buildings, where we have a significant capacity to reduce power and water usage. It is something that I think we need to do more work on. In discussions that I have had recently with ACTEW we have been talking about how we would adapt these sorts of approaches to Housing Trust properties and others. They are the sorts of things we are looking at doing in the future. I think all of those things will be useful to the ACT environment.

I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.

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