Page 4664 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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approach to setting interim targets. There is a superior approach in reporting on whether or not those targets are being met.
It is very interesting that Mr Corbell and the Greens are not prepared to countenance reporting in the robust way which is advocated in the Canberra Liberals’ bill.
In addition to that, the major difference is whether we agree to 30 or 40 per cent by 2020. This is a matter that the Canberra Liberals have considered for a long time. It has been our consistent view that 30 per cent was an approach that was robust and rigorous. It would require considerable effort on the part of the community, but it would not be so difficult as to cripple the average Canberra family and make their cost of living so exorbitant as to make it difficult for them to make ends meet.
The cost implications of meeting these targets, even with a 30 per cent target, are considerable, but they are more so with a 40 per cent target. It is easy for early adopters and enthusiasts to get carried away. I probably count myself as an early adopter in greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency, and it is easy for us to get carried away. But first of all we have to sell the story to a whole lot of people who are not yet engaged, and we have to make it financially affordable for them to do so. The ACT government has been quite remiss and quite lax in its approach to addressing issues of energy efficiency, helping ACT families address energy efficiency and actually advocating for energy efficiency in a way that would be appealing for a whole lot of people out there in the community who are still not engaged with this issue.
The fact that the ACT government puts forward a bill here today that does not look at cutting our per capita use of energy shows that it is not concerned about energy efficiency. Mr Corbell mentions it in passing, but he really likes glittering baubles rather than hard grunt. And energy efficiency is a hard grunt area. There are not ribbons to cut on solar power plants and there are not PV cells to unveil. It is actually hard grunt, and it is not sexy; therefore this government has not engaged in it.
I commend my colleagues in the Canberra Liberals for their commitment to this issue over a very long period. Since 1997, the Canberra Liberals have been the leaders in the ACT in relation to addressing greenhouse gas emissions and setting targets and trying to meet those targets. They are very difficult things to do. I am proud to be a member of a party that has had a consistent policy and has led in this regard all that time. I am proud to have been the first person in this place to have introduced target legislation. I am sad to see that the policy will go down today.
I have a word of warning for this minister. The task that he has set himself today on behalf of the people of the ACT is a herculean one. It will be an expensive one, and the people of the ACT will bear that cost in their everyday family budgets. The minister needs to deliver this commitment in a way that does not cripple the average family member in the ACT who has enough to do sending their children to school and paying the already high taxes imposed by the ACT government.
I commend the Climate Change (Greenhouse Gas Emission Targets) Bill 2008 (No 2) to the Assembly.
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