Page 1123 - Week 03 - Thursday, 26 February 2009
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If we do not get serious about building a medium to large-scale industry in the ACT, we pass up the opportunity for new jobs. Then the community, as well as the Greens, will once again find themselves underwhelmed by the capacity of the old parties to tackle the problem of climate change head on with some assertiveness. That is the potential consequence of missing out on these opportunities down the line.
I trust—I am taking it on trust—the commitments to develop the provisions over the next few months. I look forward to both the government and its department working with great energy to ensure that by 1 July we have group provisions that will send to the many industry operators that have come to see me the signal that says: “We welcome you to the ACT. Here are some open arms; please come and build your industry of the future in our town. We want the ACT to be the hub of these industries in Australia. We want the jobs of the future in our city. We want the opportunities for our young people to have skilled jobs in the energies of the future.” That is the signal that this Assembly needs to send. We think we can do this in a way that is affordable for the ACT.
Just last week, in an article in the Age newspaper, I was interested to read that Australia’s current installed solar capacity is 10 megawatts—across the entire country. It is a disgrace for this country that we sit at only 10 megawatts. Here in the ACT we can afford a scheme that, for less than $35 a year for the average household, would see capacity to double that in one year—double the national capacity. We could get 10 megawatts installed in the ACT in a single year for under $35 for the average household. Thirty-five dollars is a lot—an amount of money that householders could ask questions about—but I put it in the context of an annual household electricity bill of around $1,200. I think that people in the ACT would be proud to contribute to the building of a renewable energy industry in the ACT and to contribute to the doubling, in one year, of Australia’s solar energy generation capacity.
There is a great opportunity here. There are potential pitfalls as well. I look forward to a really good, invigorating discussion over the next few months about how we can do this in a way that is sustainable, that avoids the pitfalls but that sets that pathway that will create the opportunity for the future.
I really enjoyed the discussion in the last week or so with both the Liberal Party and the government over the provisions of the feed-in tariff. It has been conducted in good spirit on the whole. People have got good ideas, and that augurs well for the future of the ACT. I trust that we will grasp that opportunity over the next few months.
With that, I leave my amendments for the Assembly’s consideration.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.36): We will not be supporting this particular Greens’ amendment. We do understand the reasons for which it has been brought forward; we did consider putting something very similar forward ourselves. But on consideration and with further discussion, we are prepared to accept that, with respect to setting a deadline of 1 July 2009, whilst we would like to see this progressed quickly, I also have a particular concern that we get this right. This next stage of the feed-in tariff is very important. It is very important that we get the settings right, and there is only about four months until 1 July 2009.
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