Page 4714 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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more seriously, and I suspect that both the importance of sustainability in the ACT community and the prominence of the Greens in the political landscape have resulted in a reprioritisation.
It does seem a little ungracious of the Chief Minister not to mention the role and influence of the Greens on many of the issues he mentioned: policy outcomes that may not actually have been moved forward without the result at the last election or without the presence of the Greens in the Assembly. The Chief Minister made no mention of the parliamentary agreement, and yet it has formed part of his agenda over the past 12 months also.
I turn to some specifics on that agenda. Community consultation is the first. Although the government transferred the community engagement unit to the Chief Minister’s Department, as per the agreement, it seems that getting community consultation right is still a big effort for this government. We have seen a few local planning issues brought to the floor of the Assembly this year, as people really were not able to have a say in the developments about to occur there. The Greens have now proposed that a formal precinct planning process, complete with consultation, be reinstated for such situations in future.
On the feed-in tariff, the government’s energy policy centrepiece this year has been the feed-in tariff. The Greens were instrumental in bringing the implementation date of the feed-in tariff forward to March. And thank goodness we did, because the government is still debating how to extend the scheme out to medium and large-scale generators, after the scheme was watered down in February. The Greens are very supportive of the feed-in tariff being extended in the context of a broader energy policy which we await with interest.
The delivery of an energy policy is, of course, another item in the parliamentary agreement and another example of how the Greens are, by our presence, holding the government to account. This government began consultation on an energy policy in 2006. We are hopeful of starting detailed community consultation on it at the end of 2009, hand-in-hand with a clear sense of the government’s commitment to reducing greenhouse emissions.
Neighbourhood planning has also been part of the parliamentary agreement and, as well as proposing a precinct planning process, the Greens are proposing that additional master plans be developed for Erindale, Hall and Tharwa.
On affordable housing, we commend the government on its efforts to increase the stock of affordable housing but note that there is far more work needed to ensure that both new and existing housing stock is made more affordable to live in, especially for low income households, by decreasing the energy needed to heat and cool our houses.
On stimulus package special regulations, the Greens believe that the government could have still met the development targets within the deadlines without having to withdraw third-party appeal rights. Given that these appeals are in place to ensure the developments are of a high quality and meet the requirements of the territory plan, the Greens would have preferred to retain them, even throughout the accelerated process.
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