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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 2692 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

have a situation whereby it will be too late to deal in any substantive way with the regulation of this industry and the issue of wood smoke before winter of next year.

The minister has stood in this place and said that he thinks that it should be dealt with in the autumn sitting. The autumn sitting would be too late. I can hear the minister's reply now: "There is not time to have it in place before winter 2001." Clearly, the minister's attempt to adjourn debate on the bill today simply highlights that it is the government's agenda to put off this change until at least after winter of next year.

That is not good enough for the people who face problems with asthma, who face problems with breathing difficulty and who face all the other problems associated with wood smoke pollution. For that reason, Mr Speaker, the Assembly should not support the adjournment of the debate today.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services): I seek leave to speak to the motion, Mr Speaker.

Leave granted.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, as I said in the earlier debate, there is work being done on a national scale that may even make things better. The industry has been put on notice. It knows that by December we will have the report of the working group of ANZECC and knows that it faces the possibility of legislation. Why? It is because it was raised in the work of the ACT firewood working group. The issue has been there for the whole time.

Mr Berry: You just want to see what the rest of the country thinks about us.

Ms Tucker: Listen to your constituents.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please. This debate is generating more heat than light.

MR SMYTH: That is because of the lack of oxygen of some of the participants, Mr Speaker, which makes the point. By December we will know whether such legislation is necessary and whether it can be implemented. The industry is on notice. It will know by then. There will be plenty of time. We can pass the legislation on the first sitting day of next year and it can affect the season next year. But an even better outcome would be to have the information that will become available in December.

It is appropriate to go out for extra consultation to make sure that we get a nationally consistent approach. Contrary to Ms Tucker's opinion, the ACT is pushing hard on this issue. We have not shirked our duty. We are the ones who got it onto the national agenda and we are the ones who will carry through with it. This government is leading on it and we may get a better outcome.

Question put:

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