Page 4850 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 October 2010
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paid for by the residents and the businesses of the ACT without any certainty at all, because we do not know how to achieve this.
We are not against setting targets. Indeed, we got there first in terms of being the first jurisdiction in Australia to sign up to Kyoto in 1997. We were the first jurisdiction, a decade ago, to actually put a greenhouse gas strategy in place. We used to lead the country on these issues but we also had the policies to deliver.
As an example, you do not have to go much further than no waste by 2010, which successive Stanhope governments have abandoned, watered down and ignored, such that they got a damning report from the Auditor-General saying, “You’re going to have to pull up your socks if you’re going to achieve this target,” which they ignored. Here we are in 2010 and we have not met that target. It was an achievable target. I know those opposite will say, “It was only ever aspirational.” No, it was not. The people of the ACT, when we consulted them, said they wanted real, practical solutions that they could be a part of. And we gave them those real, practical solutions.
In regard to things like the Earth Charter, again I think we were the first jurisdiction in the country to sign up to that, led by the Liberal Party. I agree that Kerrie Tucker assisted in that but it certainly was not the Labor Party leading the charge on that.
The issue of bio bins is another example. We have not got a bio bin in the ACT. Why? Because the Labor Party dragged the chain on this issue because they do not have the will and the wherewithal to do simple, real, practical things. I set up a bio bin trial in Chifley. The result said, “Go right ahead.” This was something the people supported, and it worked. But nine years later we still do not have practical means on the table to do these things, as we used to do under a Liberal government—not under a Labor government. It never happens under the Labor Party, I can assure you.
Go back to the history. We used to lead on these things. We had high-quality design and sustainability guidelines. Indeed, at one stage we moved a town centre to protect the environment because we had the will, we had the wherewithal and we had the policies to do it and, through prudent economic management, were able to do it. We could fund the way forward but we cannot do it now. If we could do it now, the government would be outlining how they would be doing this.
It is easy to set a target. “I am brave. I am going to go to 40 per cent. I will see your 30 per cent and I will raise you 10. I will see your 40 per cent and I will raise you 10, to 50.” We can go on like that all day. It is easy to be brave when you are not telling people how and who pays. And that is the problem with what we are doing today. We do not know how we are going to get there and we do not know who is going to pay for it and how we are going to pay for it.
Indeed, since the debate started on Tuesday there were predictions of what this would cost, and those predictions are coming true. I understand the South Australian regulator has been approached by AGL Energy to cover their feed-in tariff. They want to increase power bills by $7.58 per megawatt hour next year. It is already happening.
The evidence is that this will affect ordinary families and their power bills. But we are not thinking of the people. There it is behind your head, Madam Deputy Speaker, “For
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