Page 3308 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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This is going to happen. It is going to happen on a national basis and it is going to happen in detailed consultation with the industry, with the manufacturers, with the distributors, with the retailers, with the purchasers and with the end users. And there is a uniform national process for that to occur.
At the end of the day, what is this debate about? It is not about achieving the outcome. It is about the Greens trying to say, “We are going to get brownie points for doing it three or four months ahead of the nationally agreed time frame.” That is what it is about.
Mr Rattenbury: That is their usual basis.
Mr Barr: That is your track record.
Ms Bresnan: Even though you want to do it, no—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Corbell will be heard in silence.
MR CORBELL: And it is unfortunate that the Greens feel they need to circumvent a process that has been in place and has been progressing for the last 12 months or so. They just want to get in at the end and get the credit but they do not actually acknowledge the fact that this is going to happen; there is an agreed process for it to happen; and there is a process that engages all the stakeholders.
The question then before the government is: what does this bill achieve ahead of that nationally agreed process? Is there any compelling policy reason that, instead of the phase-out of electric hot-water systems in new dwellings occurring on 1 May next year, it should occur on 1 October this year? What is the compelling argument for that difference of about six months? What is the argument?
We know that the Greens have not gone out and talked to the retailers of these products in the ACT or the distributors. Where has been the consultation with the firms that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars purchasing product and supplying the local building industry? Where has been that consultation?
Where has been the consultation with the practitioners who install this equipment, the plumbers who purchase the stock and then sell it to their customers when they install the product, whether it is new homes or existing homes? Where has been the consultation with the plumbers who are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year purchasing these products and on-selling them? Where has been the consultation with the builders who build the homes, who purchase the products and make decisions about ordering these products well in advance of the six weeks which is suggested by Ms Le Couteur in her bill for the commencement for new dwellings?
This is the failure of the Greens’ approach. The intent is right. There is no disagreement here. There is no disagreement on the part of any side of this Assembly. The problem is: where has been their commitment to engage the people who have to make it happen on the ground, especially when there is a detailed consultation and
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