Page 4849 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 October 2010
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environmentally responsible modes of transport, in terms of financial, time and comfort costs, we can facilitate a situation where people will freely choose public transport for their commuter needs, rather than needing to be compelled to use public transport.
A pricing system that accurately reflects the true costs of private transport, including the environmental and economic impacts of congestion and emissions, tied with a competitively priced and effective public transport alternative, should be a goal for Canberra, and is what we need if we are to achieve our goal of leading the way in emissions reduction.
However, we recognise that personalised transport will continue to be a reality for many Canberrans, which is why we welcome the decision for Canberra to lead the way in adopting electric vehicle infrastructure. Providing the infrastructure and the economic environment to replace the internal combustion engine with newer, cleaner technologies is one of the greatest challenges facing both governments and the automobile industry, and we are happy to see both Australian companies like Blade Electric Vehicles and international companies like Better Place choosing Canberra to become a world leader in renewable-powered electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are constantly evolving, becoming more powerful and efficient, and able to cater more and more to the motoring market.
Just on the Canberra Liberals’ bill and the target of 30 per cent, we have heard the Liberals deride and label as draconian proposals to work towards a 40 per cent target put forward by the Greens, such as issues around public transport and improving the energy efficiency of homes, and also the feed-in tariff. These proposals would be required to reach any sort of target, including the 30 per cent put forward by the Canberra Liberals. We have yet to hear any sort of proposals or ideas from the Liberals, only criticisms. They say we should take strong environmental action, just not how. I commend the 40 per cent target and the bill to the Assembly.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.34): I was, I have to say, amused when the Hansard of Tuesday’s debate came out and one could fully read some of the statements made by Mr Barr in this debate. There is a lovely line where he says:
We should be looking forward to new solutions and not casting back a century for answers to Canberra’s challenges.
That is interesting. New solutions? We used to have new solutions. We used to lead the country in new solutions, under a Liberal government. For the first seven or eight years of the Stanhope government, of course Mr Stanhope was not aware that climate change actually existed. It was, what, March 2008, when he suddenly came to realise the greatest moral dilemma of the century existed. It is interesting that since then it has been catch-up by this government. When they do get a little adventurous and decide to set a target, they cannot tell us how they will get there, they cannot tell us how much it will cost and they cannot tell us who will pay.
In effect, what is happening here today is that we will set a target. We do not know how we will achieve it. We are writing a blank cheque for the government that will be
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