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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Tuesday, 24 August 2004) . . Page.. 4018 ..

workload of draft variations and other matters, it was not able to produce a comprehensive report on the matter. The committee also notes that the landscape in this area is rapidly undergoing significant change and movement both nationally and locally.

The committee initiated this inquiry through a public conference held on 11 October 2002 to bring together a range of views on the wide spectrum of renewable energy and sustainability issues. Organisations represented at the conference included ActewAGL, Environment ACT, ACT Sustainability Expert Reference Group, the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems from the ANU, the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society and the Australian Greenhouse Office. I believe that the body of work presented at the initial conference made a very important contribution to the debate surrounding renewable energy and I commend the transcript of these proceedings to all members.

The committee also undertook the following activities:

• public hearings on 29 August 2003 and 19 September 2003;

• a site visit on 15 August 2003 to see examples of renewable energy within the local area. This included a visit to the Crookwell wind farm and to the Yass photovoltaic power station at Queanbeyan;

• attendance at an international sustainability conference in September 2003 held at Notre Dame University in Western Australian and hosted by the government of Western Australia; and

• participation in the Parliamentary National Conference of Public Works and Environment Committees in 2003 and 2004. At both of these conferences sustainability issues were at the forefront of discussion.

The committee recognises the recent developments within the ACT government in the area of sustainability and, in particular, the work being undertaken by the Office of Sustainability in developing a policy framework for sustainability in the ACT. The office delivered its first progress report in July 2004.

The committee hoped that, by bringing a diverse group together to speak on this issue at its initial conference, one outcome would be better communication and coordination between stakeholders in the territory. However, in the opinion of the committee, the key problem appears to be the lack of a single oversighting body within the government to coordinate the direction of renewable energy and sustainability activity. For as long as these issues are perceived as the combined responsibilities of the Department of Urban Services and the offices of Environment and Sustainability, the government is failing in the task of cultural change and also failing in building the capacity to see and act on the independence of government actions when it comes to ensuring sustainability.

The committee acknowledges that sustainability is about balancing economic, social and environmental considerations. However, this balance must be over both the short and the long term. This is particularly important when weighing the short-term costs of new technologies or approaches against their longer term environmental and social impacts.

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