Page 4765 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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Less than a year in from the commencement of the feed-in tariff that has been achieved.
Of course, we have also undertaken detailed assessment of our impact as a city in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and, for the first time, we have a comprehensive picture of that through the greenhouse gas inventory work that my department has commissioned. We have put in place a range of very important measures to encourage households and businesses to do their bit to reduce their emissions, to improve the water efficiency of their buildings, to reduce their waste that is going to landfill. The $14.4 million switch your thinking initiative from the most recent budget and the act smart climate campaigns that are now underway deliver a whole range of new services to households and businesses, to deliver better support to householders to save energy, to save money, to save water and to make their contribution towards creating a more sustainable Canberra.
We have seen a strong response from the community for these programs, and just last week I had the opportunity of launching the new website, a one-stop shop for Canberrans, to access all the information about our rebate programs, about our education assistance programs, in one place, easy to understand, easy to access.
We put in place important programs for businesses. The commercial bathroom retrofit program has begun, to make sure that commercial building owners get assistance in reducing their water use. The process for households in choosing plants for their gardens and making sure that they choose water-efficient, drought-tolerant species has been put in place through the plant selector tool and the water right web tool which I launched earlier this year.
Of course, important work is happening in the energy sphere, as I alluded to earlier. We are currently assessing in detail the expressions of interest that have been received from 19 separate organisations—big and small, national, local and international—to deliver Canberra’s first solar power plant capable of powering at least 10,000 Canberra homes. That response has been a very strong one. There is very strong industry interest in making Canberra the solar capital of Australia. And this, of course, was the government’s key election commitment: to make Canberra the solar capital, to drive the sustainability agenda and the renewable energy industry agenda. And we are seeing business respond to our approaches on that issue.
The government has committed itself to a zero net emissions objective for our city, and I am looking forward in the coming weeks to putting more flesh on that for the Assembly and outlining what future directions the government will take. Solar hot water rebates are another program being provided by the government, as are home energy audits for homes to assist them in reducing their energy use.
In the area of water, we are acting to improve water security for the region. We are putting in place important infrastructure projects which will provide greater security of supply for our city. Whether it is the expanded Cotter Dam project, whether it is the Tantangara to Googong transfer or the purchase of water from Tantangara and the pipeline itself, these are all vital water security projects, commitments we made at the last election, commitments that are being implemented. Equally, the government is
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