Page 3598 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
people not to engage with it, not to engage with the issue of climate change, not to seek to work with the government in partnership in the implementation of the 43 actions.
That is what we are seeking to do. We want to work with all institutions and people of the ACT. In the last two weeks the Planning Institute of Australia described the strategy as the best climate change strategy in Australia—not, of course, to the standard of the Greens and their non-existent strategy, but nevertheless an excellent strategy which we all need to engage with and which we all need to work in partnership to implement.
The Greens have a destructive, negative approach to good legislation, good policies and good strategies that have the support of the broader community—but not of the Greens or the conservation council, because it does not meet their high and reverent standard in relation to these issues.
I turn to the government’s actions on this subject. I move:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
(1) notes that the principles of sustainability have been incorporated into every aspect of the ACT Government’s decision-making and policy development;
(2) notes that the ACT Government has embraced the concept of sustainability, evidenced by the ACT Government’s Canberra Plan, its commitment to sustainable budgeting and its climate change strategy, Weathering the Change, and the 43 initiatives identified in its Action Plan;
(3) notes the ACT Government’s commitment to implementing each of these action items; and
(4) notes that the Government will amend the Commissioner for the Environment Act 1993 to expand the role of the Commissioner to include responsibility within the Commission specifically for sustainability and will consult widely with the Government, business and the broader community on the scope of legislative change.
As reflected in the amendment, in the last six years the government has indeed taken this subject very seriously. We have, across the board, led in terms of the decisions we have taken; the sustainability reports which we have delivered; the structures which we have put in place; and the appointment of the first Office of Sustainability within Australia, a decision designed to ensure that there was a government approach, that there was a focus on these issues. It was given the profile and the precedence that it deserved and demanded.
The creation of the Sustainability Expert Reference Group and issues around the Sustainability Expert Reference Group and its role over the last two years is very much a change in focus that was driven by the SERG itself in relation to its place and the role that it might play. It was not a change driven by the government in relation to a walking away from or a rolling back of commitments to sustainability at all; it was a
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .