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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 873 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

Unlike the Greens, when you look at the reality, the so-called green power is not necessarily as attractive an option as they might present it to be. For example, Ms Horodny in her question said that people in New South Wales will be able to use green power at a slightly increased cost over existing rates. The facts are that the New South Wales authority's estimates are that the energy costs from some of these alternative sources could be 40 per cent higher - not just marginally higher; 40 per cent higher. I do not think there are too many people in the ACT who are going to rush off in haste to connect up to some alternative source of power if it is going to cost them 40 per cent more than they are currently paying. Ms Horodny might, because she is committed to this; but I do not think too many other people would.

The Greens try to imply that, if you stick a few windmills on the top of a hill and generate energy by wind power, there is no cost associated with it, that it is free. That is not true. There are both economic and environmental costs associated with that alternative source of power. So it does not come without disadvantages, any more than any other source of power does. I think the Greens, instead of grabbing these ideas with both hands, as though they are going to be the panacea for the world and save the environment, should look at the reality of it. The reality of it at the moment is that the energy that is supplied in the ACT is already provided with a consciousness of the environment. One-third of the ACT's electrical energy at the moment comes from hydro generation.

Ms Horodny: No, it does not; 95 per cent of it is brown-coal-generated.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Kaine is answering your very long question, Ms Horodny.

MR KAINE: I repeat what I said before: The Greens ought to check the facts. The fact is that one-third of the ACT's electrical energy comes from hydro-electric schemes. How can you say that ACTEW are not environmentally conscious? They are.

Ms Horodny: Ninety-five per cent is coal-generated.

MR KAINE: If Ms Horodny does not want to hear the answer, Mr Speaker, I am quite happy to sit down. I simply refute the notion, first of all, that ACTEW are doing nothing about the environmental aspects of electrical energy generation and supply. They are. They are very conscious of it. They are looking at alternatives, but the Greens do not like the alternatives. They are looking at a gas-powered electrical energy production plant in the ACT. The Greens do not like that either. The only thing they like is what happens, apparently, in New South Wales, and they cannot even get their facts straight on that.

MS HORODNY: Mr Speaker, I thought this Government was committed to competition and consumer choice. The reality is that people in Queanbeyan do have that choice as of today. So we are way behind Queanbeyan. That is a bit embarrassing.

MR SPEAKER: Order! There must be no preamble. Ask the question.

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