Page 507 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 16 February 2005
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We recognise that ACTPLA is moving slowly towards more holistic sustainability measures for the built environment. However, that movement is too slow. We need to make changes now. In July this year, our neighbours in Queanbeyan will have sustainability standards for new homes and we will not. We have an opportunity to act now to curb our greenhouse emissions in the built environment. On a per person basis, Australia is one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gas pollution in the world, pumping 19 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere for every one Australian citizen. This puts us just behind the USA with 20 tonnes per person per annum. Severe water restrictions in the ACT and across the country highlight that water is a finite resource and the fact that Australia is the driest inhabited continent.
It is also worth mentioning that I have changed the motion slightly since it appeared on the notice paper in December. The motion now asks the government to present an implementation plan rather than to implement the tools by the end of June 2005. This reflects the fact that it is now a couple of months later, and it provides some time for longer consideration of how such a scheme could be implemented. This is a very reasonable request. We have also changed the motion with regard to the targets in water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Initially, the motion mirrored the requirements from New South Wales as of July 2005, but we actually consider that it would be beneficial to the territory to set our own targets that are linked to strategies such as the ACT’s water strategy “Think water, act water” and the ACT greenhouse strategy.
The aim of our motion is to encourage the government to move more quickly to adopt sustainability standards in the built environment. We have structured the motion to allow the government to decide on the best way to introduce the necessary standards to the development approval process, in the hope that this will lead to speedier government action. I will listen with great interest to the government’s response to our motion.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (4.13): I seek leave to move amendments 1 and 2 circulated in my name.
Leave granted.
MR HARGREAVES: I move:
(1) paragraph 1, omit “and” at end of paragraph; and
(2) paragraph 2, omit the paragraph, substitute:
“(2) supports the Government’s commitment to re-establish Canberra as an Australian centre of sustainable and innovative design as stated in its election policies;
(3) encourages the Government in its development of strategies to ensure that:
(a) new single residential building design meets minimum sustainability standards including minimum water consumption and greenhouse gas
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