Page 5003 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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Clause 13.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.40), by leave: I move amendments Nos 14 and 15 [see schedule 2 at page 5089] and amendment No 1 on the yellow sheet circulated in my name together [see schedule 6 at page 5094].
These amendments address issues around the annual reporting by the minister. Amendment No 14 requires the minister to report on effectiveness of actions. A report that merely lists the actions that any government has undertaken is not helpful and, some could argue, is meaningless. What is important is how effective those measures have been: have they achieved emission reductions, were they cost effective, what were the other benefits? These are the sorts of questions that this place and the community want to be able to draw answers from when it comes to the minister’s report.
The government have discussed that they will undertake cost-benefit analyses on abatement options. I think this is a very worthwhile idea as it is not always apparent at first glance whether something is effective and efficient and what are the outcomes it might achieve.
Amendment No 15 removes the definition of the government agency and moves it into the dictionary. That scene, we will obviously come back to later.
The amendment on the yellow sheet, I think, comes back to some of the discussion we have been having already this morning around the issue of cost-benefit analysis and does seek or require that the government present “the findings of a cost-benefit analysis of any government policies or programs implemented to meet the targets mentioned in part 2 during the financial year”. I think we have been at some cross-purposes this morning. Nonetheless, I think most people in this place would accept the government will and must undertake cost-benefit analyses and it seems entirely appropriate that they be provided to the Assembly at the time of the annual report.
This is information that the Assembly should have access to. The government, if it has done the work, should provide that information. And that will provide us a basis on which to have further debate and really answer those questions around whether measures have been cost effective, whether they have been the best option and the like. So I commend the amendments to the Assembly.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.42): The government will support these amendments. These amendments provide for a reasonable level of reporting in relation to actions undertaken by the minister or the government in relation to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. They also have regard to the need for a proper assessment of cost benefit where that has occurred and, where that has occurred, for the government to make it available to the Assembly through the minister’s annual report. So the government will be supporting those amendments.
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