Page 5254 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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It is interesting that some of the initiatives that were taken up in these places have not been taken up here; for instance, the $4 million revolving fund. The minister keeps saying: “Well, we have a revolving fund but it does not work. It is being reviewed but there is no incentive.” He does not have an answer as to why it does not work here but it worked elsewhere. I hope that he has learnt something from his travels about how the revolving fund can work to improve energy efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions in the community and in government departments. It has been a very powerful implement with the London climate change authority and in other places in Australia. Ms Porter would recall that the Penrith City Council has had a revolving fund for a number of years and it has worked very effectively there as well. There is much that needs to be done. There is much that we as Canberra Liberals are proud of.
I am very pleased now that there is general agreement in this Assembly that there should be legislation for climate change targets, greenhouse gas emission targets and associated targets, because in 2007 when I introduced the first piece of legislation like that it was pooh-poohed by the then climate change minister, Mr Stanhope. He made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of going down that path; he was not interested in medium-term targets; he was not interested in targets that would take us along the way to energy efficiency and renewable energy.
We have seen a change and that is welcome. But today, having seen Mr Rattenbury’s amendment, I do not think that the Liberal opposition are prepared in this motion here today to say what those interim targets should be, because I think that is something that has to be worked out in a collegial way with all the parties in this place in relation to—
Mr Corbell: We had a committee inquiry. You were on the inquiry.
MRS DUNNE: I was not. I was not on the inquiry.
Mr Corbell: The Liberal Party was; your leader was.
MRS DUNNE: The Assembly has received recommendations from a committee. The government has views. The Greens have views. The Liberal opposition has legislation on the table. The final number is something that needs to be worked out collegially and put in the legislation which the minister has foreshadowed.
The other important issue, along with setting the targets, is to ensure that if we actually set targets we do not diddle ourselves in relation to the carbon pollution reduction scheme, which is currently the case now. If we do all this work, it will just free up carbon for somebody else to use. One of the most important things that this minister needs to do is to ensure that the initiatives and the effort that Canberra people put into this do not go wasted because somebody else gets to pollute with our savings.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (6.14): When I was upstairs, it was interesting to hear Mr Corbell talking about leadership and things that they are doing. I look at the motion, and I thank Ms Porter for bringing this motion on. Paragraph (2) endorses the government decision to set the ambitious yet achievable greenhouse gas reduction
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