Page 2100 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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long-term returns to the community. These works must be scrutinised to ensure that the social and environmental benefits of this once in a lifetime spending spree at least match the economic benefits we expect. Our new infrastructure must deliver the highest practical levels of energy efficiency and water use efficiency with a clear eye towards a future in which energy and water costs will certainly increase.
Cost increases are inevitable in a climate where global demand will continue to rise and global action is being taken at last to internalise the free ride we have had on the externalities that excess energy and water consumption have left us with. High levels of energy and water use efficiency designed into our new infrastructure now will leave a legacy of ongoing dividends for future generations of Canberrans.
In infrastructure design and delivery we must also be thinking ahead in terms of integrating opportunities for waste minimisation at source, whether this be in the form of recyclable fit-out in office buildings or clever capture and reuse of stormwater run-off so that it is able to be used as a resource and not treated as waste to be managed. From a medium-term perspective, even the material used in the infrastructure needs to be examined. Even our reliance on concrete as our most familiar building material is up for review, as is the energy embedded in concrete itself, with cement manufacturing one of the most energy intensive industries we have. Better performance on each of these will deliver long-run returns to the community through lower running costs and more people-friendly buildings.
The ACT has a unique economy. Since the territory’s creation we have had an economy based on providing public sector services—government itself as well as health and world-class education—and on a steadily growing population and the diverse business mix that services it. Our aim is to see this foundation evolve in line with the call from leading global thinkers to play our part in changing the direction of global growth. Our contribution to this global challenge will be to minimise Canberra’s environmental footprint while maximising the value gained from business and government activities. If we are to keep Canberra’s economy evolving to be one which emphasises higher value, knowledge-based products and services alongside environmentally friendly technologies and services, we need to be working now on measures to stimulate change in this direction. Higher-skilled, green-collar jobs in emerging sustainable industries will be the foundation of our future economic growth.
But does the ACT have a strategy to do this? The territory’s new economic strategy, capital development, sets the tone. While there are aspects of the strategy that accord with the directions we know the territory needs to go in, it is clear that it is based more on optimistic business as usual than providing a handbook for change. The strategy builds on the territory’s economic growth path but does not provide a road map of how the territory can change direction to be a more genuinely sustainable economy. The strategy is based on a number of orthodox principles, including faith in a hands-off framework which emphasises deregulation and government getting out of the way, at a time when there is widespread recognition that this is no longer necessarily the best pathway. I am also concerned that the capital development strategy seems to lack the type of broader community consultation and engagement that we have seen in its predecessor, the economic white paper, and in the other pillars of the Canberra plan.
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