Page 2103 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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large energy bills due to poor insulation and building design. So we must ensure that there is encouragement for landlords to access these efficiency programs, as well as homeowners.
Our natural environment also costs money to look after. There are some useful initiatives in this budget to protect our natural areas, but there is little doubt that they fall short in some places. The Greens will want to look closely in the estimates process at how the government has funded programs to manage and preserve our grasslands, including weed and rabbit management, provision of ranger services and funding to support the creation of new reserve areas, off the back of the commissioner’s grasslands report that came out earlier this year.
However, I would like to make it clear to the government that there will need to be substantial reprioritisation of spending on climate change mitigation measures that will go hand in hand with the implementation of the ACT’s energy policy and the setting of legislative greenhouse targets. The time for tinkering around the edges is over. The time for calling something that is so important “climate spending” when it is not should be over. In the next few months when we see the ACT government make some significant decisions about our climate policy, we require strong policy responses and a far greater investment by government in the very near future. Climate change, energy and water are all issues that will only grow in significance in the years ahead.
With regard to planning and development, the Greens are very pleased to see that ACTPLA has had its budget increased by $1.7 million specifically to ensure that development applications can be processed in a timely manner, an issue which I am sure many of you are aware has been ongoing and one that was raised by my colleague Caroline Le Couteur. We certainly do not want to see development in the ACT stifled by the slowness of DA processing, leading to the possible loss of financing.
In the same way, we welcome the government’s proposals to reduce the change-of-use charge as well as the two-year moratorium on fees charged on delayed commercial developments. Although this will cost the government $120,000 in lost revenue, it should ensure that commercial growth is able to withstand the difficult economic climate we are in.
The Greens are also pleased to see that ACTPLA is improving its capability to undertake mandatory inspections. You may know that we have done a lot of work—again, by my colleague Caroline Le Couteur—on improving the auditing of the energy efficiency ratings. This is important, as we understand that an increase in one-star or EER rating increases average house prices by approximately $10,000. We will be following up to ensure that this funding of $7.9 million over four years includes funding for EER auditing as well as gas, electrical and building inspections.
We see that the government is planning to release land in the Molonglo Valley in this next financial year, with 800 houses in Wright. $2 million has been allocated to potable water supply to Coombs and Wright but the agreement clearly states that a third pipeline for non-potable water should also be incorporated into the planning
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