Page 300 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.40): I move:
That the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.40): I thank members for their support of the proposed terms of reference for the new Standing Committee on Climate Change, Environment and Water. I think what is fair is that there is an acceptance that we need to work harder and faster on this question, that we need to revisit and recast the framework in which we as a community work towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing our part and our leadership in achieving a safe climate for all Canberrans.
I thank members for their support. I particularly thank Mr Rattenbury and Ms Hunter and their staff for their assistance and cooperation in drafting these terms of reference. I think it is a good demonstration of our ability to work well and effectively in fashioning a robust set of ideas and approaches to address this issue. I would like to respond very briefly to the comments made by Mrs Dunne in her speech and her critique of what she feels is a change in direction in terms of the feed-in tariff. Of course, Mrs Dunne simply makes those assumptions because she has no detail, but she is quick to leap to critique without even knowing the detail of what the government is proposing.
The government and members would be aware that there are a range of matters that need to be resolved before the feed-in tariff law can become operational. It is those matters that the government is seeking to address. I would simply ask Mrs Dunne to hold her judgement until she actually sees the detail rather than leaping in in the way she did earlier. I can assure her, and I can assure members, that it is the government’s intention to have a progressive feed-in tariff in place in the territory that encourages renewable generation and does so in the way that it was targeted by Mr Gentleman, which was to encourage that micro generation and that medium scale generation which the subsidy, through the tariff, was designed to assist people in terms of meeting the costs of installation. There are a range of other matters at play, of course, and we will have that discussion and that debate in this place, but the government’s commitment is to a workable, effective, progressive and innovative feed-in tariff that makes a difference for Canberrans.
This committee inquiry will be a comprehensive and detailed one, and it will be one that will require a significant body of work by committee members. The government looks forward to providing a detailed submission and to working cooperatively and collaboratively with all committee members in achieving a committee report that will well inform the climate change strategy that we will be revising as a result of that and also in informing the final version of the ACT’s energy policy when that is complete. I again commend the terms of reference to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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