Page 1825 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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in the delivery of reports and consultancies, interaction with other policies, public consultation and, within government itself, consideration and negotiation, including the cabinet consideration process. Each work program yields an expected delivery date which is provided to me and on which, in good faith, I base my public comments.
However, anticipated time lines sometimes do not eventuate for a wide variety of reasons, such as staff movements—and we are dealing here with highly skilled policy staff who are difficult to replace quickly—the impact of new priorities, changes in the national policy context, delays in the finalisation of consultancies, often for very good reasons, and longer than expected government consideration and negotiation.
Carping criticism from the sidelines is not going to change the harsh realities involved in the process of policy development. It also does not acknowledge that the government’s commitment to these reforms, to these policies and strategies, remains as firm as ever. A few policies will be delivered later than originally anticipated, but they will be delivered and, when they are delivered, they will actually be workable.
I have no intention of lowering my expectations on the quality of work delivered to me and to government in order to meet some bizarre or arbitrary time line that Mr Rattenbury thinks should be met. Does he doubt the government’s commitment? I note he and his colleagues are always happy to claim credit for the policy initiatives of the government, so surely he cannot be as dismissive of the processes necessary to deliver them—as dismissive as this motion suggests.
I will run through just a few of the actions that have been taken on sustainability by the government to date. Firstly, in relation to climate change, in May 2009 the government announced its goal of zero net emissions for the ACT by 2060. That was followed, of course, as members would recall, by the enactment of the Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which sets ambitious targets of a 40 per cent reduction based on 1990 levels by the year 2020, 80 per cent less than 1990 by 2050 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Implementation of these measures will be guided into the future by action plan 2 of weathering the change, the ACT’s climate change strategy, that is now being formulated and will provide the road map to achieving these goals. Action plan 2 will still be released in the first half of this year. Extensive consultation will be undertaken with the final action plan 2 and updated weathering the change released later this year.
In relation to energy policy, as part of the government’s commitment to carbon neutrality in its own operations, and indeed to achieving carbon neutrality across the territory as a whole, the government is committed to the development of a sustainable energy policy, a draft of which has already been released for public comment. The policy will contain specific and measurable targets and ensure the equitable provision of energy and security of supply. It will reinforce the government’s commitment to maintaining reliable electricity and natural gas supplies and the implementation and facilitation of renewable energy sources and the delivery of necessary infrastructure to meet consumer and industry expectations.
The policy and supporting programs will also facilitate the development of distributed energy and will increase the territory’s focus on energy efficiency. The draft policy,
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