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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 2678 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The EPAs In New South Wales and Victoria have established systems for alerting people about high pollution days. They have established pollution indexes, and when the indexes reach a certain level and weather conditions do not allow pollution dispersion, then a public air pollution warning is issued. The New South Wales EPA have taken this a step further with their Don't Light Tonight campaign. On days with high levels of particulate pollution, the EPA issue Don't Light Tonight notices, calling on those people with wood heating to voluntarily use other forms of heating if they have that option so that the overall pollution load can be reduced.

If they can have such a pollution monitoring and notification system in Sydney, which has a significantly less problem with wood smoke than the ACT, then surely we should have such a system here. That is why I am calling on the government in the first two points of my motion to review the existing air quality monitoring network in the ACT so that it is capable of detecting the smallest particles of concern, those down to 2.5 microns, and capable of generating air pollution warnings in real time. I would also like the government to establish a similar public notification system to the Don't Light Tonight system in Sydney.

The third point in my motion reflects a different aspect of this problem, which is how to reduce the level of wood smoke pollution in the longer term. There are already emissions standards for wood heaters, but technically it is not possible to eliminate all smoke pollution from wood fires. The ideal is to reduce the number of wood heaters in the ACT, or at least to have them used less often. This raises an equity issue. If we were to ban wood heating, then this would put financial pressure on those people who rely on this form of heating to meet the capital cost of new heating systems. Tenants in particular have no choice but to rely on the heating their landlords provide.

I am therefore asking the government to investigate ways of assisting low-income households to install less polluting heating systems. There are a number of precedents for governments subsidising environmental improvements in the area of energy efficiency and greenhouse. The government already provides rebates for the purchase of rainwater tanks and efficient shower heads. Some other states offer rebates for the installation of solar hot water heaters, and the federal government offers rebates for the installation of photovoltaic systems on residential buildings. It might also be possible to offer low or no-interest loans. I do not have a preference for the particular form of assistance, but it does deserve further investigation.

Firewood burning is a significant environmental issue in the ACT, which unfortunately you could say has been kept on the backburner for far too long. In 1991, the then Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment undertook an inquiry into firewood heating in the ACT. Mr Moore and Mr Humphries were on that committee. That inquiry recommended the same things we are debating here today, things such as registration of firewood sellers and air quality warnings. The 1995 ACT State of the Environment Report also recommended air pollution alerts and licensing of firewood merchants. How long do the ACT public have to put up with smoke over the city every winter and the inaction of members of this place, in particular the government?

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