Page 3105 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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the climate change council that was provided for in last year’s climate change targets act. I think this is a real disappointment because it was very clear last year that there was strong community support for the setting of a legislated target.
I believe there was a reasonably strong interest in nominating to be on the climate change council. Yet the government, six months after accepting nominations, has not even formed the group. Indeed, when I asked on notice what had caused the delay in appointing the council, the response I received was:
… careful consideration be given to the initial membership.
Fair enough but how long does careful consideration take? Honestly, this is slower than your average federal government human resources department and the interminable wait to find out whether you have got a public service job or not.
My real concern is that without the council there is no community engagement in the ongoing development of these very important policies, the energy policy and action plan 2. It is bad enough that these policies have been delayed again now until the end of 2011. For the energy policy, that is a full 12 months after it was predicted, or at least its most recent prediction, and 24 months after the public consultation. But to reduce the engagement of the community in their development is such a wasted opportunity.
There are so many people in this town who are extremely keen to be engaged, who have fabulous expertise and who are committed to a zero carbon future. We should be pulling them together as soon as we can. Instead, the minister has replied, somewhat arrogantly, I thought, that the council will be appointed “at an appropriate time”. In my view, about four months ago probably would have been the appropriate time but it seems we differ on that.
The motion that the Assembly passed last month in regard to the timing of these polices has also been responded to with some contempt by the government. And it is going to be a very big fourth quarter here in the ACT. We will apparently see the energy policy, action plan 2, the waste strategy and the transport strategy, assuming that that is one of a number of caveats that are not called on. When the minister tabled his report in the Assembly it was an extraordinary list of caveats that we saw. They certainly provided every loophole under the sun. There were 10 of them in that list and, frankly, I would be surprised if some of them were not invoked at some point. They certainly provided more loopholes than you could imagine. (Second speaking period taken.)
To be honest, I do not want to put all the responsibility for this at the feet of just one minister, firstly because he has not been the responsible minister on all these policies for very long but also because I believe that the rest of government needs to take a collective responsibility for delivering what it keeps telling us is a core part of its agenda. It is time to realise that these are substantial issues. They require substantial attention by the whole ministry, including the Chief Minster and the Treasurer, and they require substantial resourcing.
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