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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2536 ..

The ACT Liberal government, whose environment minister was Gary Humphries, was the first government in Australia—national, state or territory—to make such a firm commitment to greenhouse gas reductions. That is a very proud record that I stand here today to support. Ms Tucker’s motion reaffirms that very strong commitment from the former Liberal government made in November 1997. I have been open. At the time I was mildly sceptical about whether this was a good idea or not. I was in the office at the time, counselling some caution. But I have changed my views—and I am happy to say so when I change my views. I think the commitment made by Gary Humphries at that time was prescient and forward thinking. We now see what is necessary to make things happen.

Ms Dundas said that we need a political commitment, but I need to correct her: we need a continued political commitment. There is commitment, obviously, from the Greens, the Democrats and the Liberal Party to meeting greenhouse targets, but we do not have a commitment from the Labor Party to meeting greenhouse targets. We need to go back to the state of the environment report brought out in early April by the retiring Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Joe Baker. In the part on greenhouse he said, “Quite frankly, we need to lift our game”. He was a lot more polite than that, but he highlights some issues that we have to overcome. He says:

Because of its small population and the lack of heavy industry, the ACT contributes about 1% of Australia’s total emissions. The Territory’s Greenhouse emissions could be lower still if not for the climate, urban and building design, and lifestyle.

He said, “Our emissions could be lower still if not for the climate, urban building design, and lifestyle”. As I said at the time, there is not very much we can do about our climate—it is a cold climate. There are issues about climate change but there is not much we can do about the climate as it presents itself, particularly on days like today. But there is a lot we can do about our urban and building design and our lifestyle. It is very interesting that coincidentally, today, a fairly commendable set of publications came out of ACTPLA. The most important one in the context of this debate is Guide to good design: design for a sustainable lifestyle.

I have not read that from cover to cover but I have had a chance to flick through it. Generally speaking, this is a pretty good document. I have a few issues with the way they talk about thermal mass and there are a few issues that I would perhaps debate with the people in ACTPLA, but this is a pretty damn good start. It is a shame that the environment minister does not read the publications that come out of the planning department, because there is a lot in here that goes a long way to addressing the issues we are discussing here today.

The recommendation to the government of the Commissioner for the Environment was that the government should work with the commissioner to adopt the six recommendations in the ACT greenhouse strategy: 2000 review of performance and options for the future, released in March 2003. That is the document Ms Tucker has quoted from today, and there are six recommendations. There is a lot of stuff that underpins those six recommendations. Before I get to the recommendations, I will draw to the Assembly’s attention the first finding, as opposed to a recommendation. Finding No 1 says, “It is prudent and appropriate for the ACT to maintain its present commitment

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