Page 689 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
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MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (8.55), by leave: I move the following amendment to Mr Rattenbury’s amendments:
In amendment No. (3), omit paragraph (2)(a), substitute:
“(a) present to the Speaker, by the end of business Friday, 26 February 2010, all documents held by the ACT Government pertaining to the Commonwealth’s Home Insulation Program;”.
It is clear that, in its current form and the way things are currently poised in the Assembly, there is not majority support for any of the proposals put forward. The government wants to vote against everything. In a spirit of collegiality and cooperation, I think that it would be easier to accept Mr Rattenbury’s amendments. But I think that they need to be further refined. I think that the time frame in Mr Rattenbury’s amendments, being the first sitting day in March, is too far away. The opposition put in freedom of information requests a fortnight ago today, I think. I think that the government has already done substantial work in bringing together the documents that we seek and compiling them.
But when this motion was drafted, there was an expectation it might be debated earlier in the day than it has. It is, obviously, unreasonable to expect anyone to table documents by close of business today because most of the staff have gone home. And this gives some latitude. We could have asked for them by close of business tomorrow but, in discussion with the Greens, there was a view that there needed to be some latitude. Following precedents in the past where documents have been provided to the Speaker, we have settled upon that approach.
It is a modest amendment. I think there is a moderate amount of agreement between the Greens and the Liberal Party on the thrust of the motion. We might debate the niceties of the words. Mr Rattenbury seemed to blanch at what he called the political language. We are in politics, Mr Rattenbury. You can suck it in if you like but we are in politics. As I always say to people, politics is the art of the possible. The most important thing is to put on the record that the majority of members in this place are extraordinarily alarmed at what has happened federally and are concerned for our constituents and the impact that that federal failure will have in the ACT.
There is general agreement that we want to ensure that this minister and this government do something to ensure that ACT people who may have dodgy insulation are not left in dire straits and that we have general agreement that there should be some information transmitted to affected homeowners about how to ensure that their insulation is safely inspected and some advice given from there.
I am a great fan of the ACT home energy advisory team program. I do actually have a problem with Mr Rattenbury’s proposed 3(d), which states:
note the mistakes made by the Federal Government in rolling out energy efficiency and green energy programs in the development of the ACT energy policy.”.
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