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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (15 February) . . Page.. 128 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

preparing for debate on relevant issues. Mr Speaker, I would like to say again that it would be extraordinarily useful for other members in this Assembly to follow the lead of the Government and also indicate what their legislative programs actually are, so that resources can be used more efficiently and planning can be more efficient, both from a drafting perspective and for the management of this place. Mr Speaker, I commend the paper to the Assembly.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (3.45): Mr Speaker, for the information of members and pursuant to section 22 of the Commissioner for the Environment Act 1993, I present the report of the Commissioner for the Environment entitled "Progress Towards No Waste by 2010", dated November 1999. Mr Speaker, the Government's response to the report will be provided to the Assembly in due course. I move:

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (3.46): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the ACT Greenhouse Strategy prepared by Environment ACT and I move:

Mr Speaker, I am pleased to table the ACT Greenhouse Strategy today. We have already set an ambitious target of stabilising ACT greenhouse emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2008 and reducing them by a further 20 per cent by 2018, and we have started working towards meeting this target. It is appropriate that the former Minister for the Environment, Mr Humphries, is here because it was he that engineered these targets, and he is to be congratulated for the lead that he then took on behalf of the Government.

To achieve this target, Mr Speaker, the ACT as a whole needs to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 700,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent by the year 2008. Climate change resulting from enhanced greenhouse effect is a major environment threat that the world will have to deal with for decades to come. Although the ACT is only a small contributor to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, we have a responsibility, as the nation's capital, to show leadership in playing our part to reduce the country's emissions. The ACT Greenhouse Strategy is evidence that this is a responsibility that the ACT Government takes seriously.

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