Page 1821 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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transport action plan, the sustainable waste strategy, weathering the change action plan 2, and the review of the Nature Conservation Act.
It calls for the government not only to tell the Assembly when it will release the final strategies but also when it will engage in public consultation and the public release of these strategies, because the government has an obligation to keep the community informed about its progress, something which I am concerned is starting to slip.
Let us start firstly with the energy policy and action plan 2. It has simply been delay after delay by the government on climate change over the past two years, and now we are increasingly concerned that the delivery of a comprehensive and coordinated climate strategy is still months away. Public submissions on the energy policy closed over a year ago, and we have still not seen the final version, despite the fact the minister said we would see it before the end of last year.
The energy policy was a key item for the Greens in the ALP-Greens agreement—specifically, the completion of a draft energy policy by 2008 and a final policy by December 2009. These time lines were built on the fact that a very first draft was released some time in 2005 or 2006, if I recall correctly. The government has not done very well meeting any of these time lines, and that is partly why we are here today. I think the Greens have been very patient so far, but we are getting to the point of being deeply concerned.
What has in fact happened? In February 2009 the minister said that he thought the draft policy would be released at the end of March. By October of 2009 he said it would be released in December, and it was—just. On 21 December 2009, just before Christmas, the minister released the draft energy policy for public consultation, and we were very glad to see it. We even had January to put together a submission, although I am not sure that everybody appreciated it at that time of year.
We then expected to see the government’s final energy policy within six months, perhaps released to coincide with the climate change targets legislation, but it did not come. In November 2010 the minister assured an annual reports hearing that the energy policy would be released before the end of 2010 with implementation in 2011. Once again, we were reassured, but six months later we still have not seen the policy. Importantly, nor have we received any indication from the minister as to why the delay has occurred. Instead, each sitting when the Greens ask the minister to explain when we will see the energy policy and action plan 2, he is vague with his answers and is now notably refusing to give a new time line. I have to confess that I imagine the minister has stopped being specific about when he will deliver on these strategies because he is concerned that the deadline will be missed again. Certainly history would suggest that is the case. This motion will ensure that the time lines for the energy policy are there for the community to see, because the lack of a current time line is unacceptable.
What is the minister now telling us about energy policy and action plan 2? In March Minister Corbell indicated it would be released with the climate change strategy action plan 2 later this year. In April he indicated that action plan 2 would not be coming until the federal government had settled on a carbon price policy—date
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