Page 2011 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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money, Mrs Dunne reminds me. The Liberal Party committed $240,000 in new money to climate change. Such was their commitment to dealing with global warming, such was their commitment to dealing with issues around sustainability—
Mrs Dunne: And you put $300,000—$1 dollar a head—in the next budget.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Dunne!
MR STANHOPE: Such was their commitment to their climate change strategy that, in their final year in government, they committed $240,000 to it, and Mrs Dunne reminds me that it was new money. I have advice from Treasury that, over the last three years, this government has committed $242 million to climate change initiatives. That is the most recent advice that I have from the Treasury in relation to the commitment by this government to climate change initiatives. Of course, those initiatives are quite significant. I am reminded that I do not think I have ever seen a climate change initiative from the Greens either, so they are in good company with the Libs in relation to this.
We have a quite significant, coordinated detailed set of actions that we are actively implementing. There are 43 actions in the plan, and progress on those actions and their implementation is significant and advanced. They include to: pursue carbon neutrality in government buildings; establish a $1 million energy efficiency fund for ACT government agencies; develop and implement a park and ride strategy; require all retailers of electricity to have access to an accredited green product and for that green product to be the first offer applied to any new customer; legislate renewable energy targets; differential stamp duty for low-emission vehicles; $20 million over 10 years for energy efficiency in government housing; support and generate a national emissions trading and reporting scheme—of course, we all know the Liberal Party’s attitude to that; $20 million over 10 years to assist schools to become carbon neutral; ACTION compressed natural gas bus fleet replacement; energy efficient street lights; bicycle riders who use on-bus bike racks provided travel on the bus at no cost; public transport improvements; network and service design plan for buses; travelling to work options; introduce feed-in tariffs; pursue energy efficiency ratings for all buildings; mandate greenhouse friendly options for new dwellings; integrate land use and planning; public schools to integrate environmentally sustainable design; increase home owners’ entitlement to trees; pursue urban forest replacement program; Eastlake to become a showcase urban development, et cetera, et cetera.
They are very good initiatives, most of which are on the way to implementation, including this very significant initiative, which leads Australia and the world. It is designed quite deliberately to ensure that we maintain our reputation as a community that will take seriously its obligation to deal with climate change, our emissions and footprint, and we will do it through a multiplicity of options. We will seek to engage the community and each of these initiatives do that.
It is vitally important that we engage with this community in relation to our individual responsibilities to deal with our emissions and with global warming. It is a pressing problem; it is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, issue facing the world. We take it seriously; we are investing heavily; we are being innovative; we are leading the world, and we will continue to do that. We will not stop. We will continue to push the boundaries; we will continue to invest.
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