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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 2048 ..

The Assembly voted-


	Ayes 6    			Noes 10

Mrs Burke  	Mr Stefaniak  	Mr Berry  	Ms MacDonald
Mr Cornwell     		Mr Corbell  	Mr Quinlan
Mrs Dunne      			Ms Dundas  	Mr Stanhope
Mr Pratt      			Ms Gallagher  	Ms Tucker
Mr Smyth     			Mr Hargreaves  	Mr Wood

Question so resolved in the negative.

Greenhouse gas emissions

MS DUNDAS (5.07): I move:

That this Assembly calls on the ACT Government to legislate to require all businesses with a turnover above the payroll tax threshold and all Territory owned entities including Government departments to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumed in the ACT.

Mr Speaker, as members might recall, last year I moved a motion in this Assembly calling for greenhouse gas emission information to be provided on all electricity bills. This motion was supported unanimously, and I believe that emission information will now appear on our power bills from 1 July this year. So it will be a simple matter to make this information public for larger electricity consumers, which is the intent of the motion that I move today.

Mr Speaker, even though I'm speaking rather loudly, I can barely hear myself.

MR SPEAKER

: Order, members! Ms Dundas has the floor.

MS DUNDAS

: Thank you. I'm not aware of a precedent for mandatory public reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, presumably because such information has only become available in recent times. However, there is a great deal of academic discussion on the merits of mandatory reporting, and there are many precedents for disclosure of other kinds of pollution released into the waterways or the air.

I also note that legislation to mandate reporting of emissions by companies and government was part of the ACT ALP election platform, and I would just like to quote from the ACT branch platform of the ALP:

to establish community rights in the legislation requiring ACT Government agencies, commercial firms and other bodies to disclose information on pollution emissions and energy consumption.

The motion that I move today is a step to make that platform a reality. I'm proposing that all companies above the current payroll tax threshold of $1.25 million and all ACT government entities be included in a mandatory reporting scheme. To make this information meaningful, it would be necessary to present emission as tonnes of

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