Page 4170 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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government has implemented to create an economic incentive for low emissions industries or a single disincentive put in place for emission intensive activity, mentioning only the commonwealth’s clean energy future package. As environment minister, what economic reform is required if we are to achieve our 40 per cent emissions target?
MR CORBELL: I think the Minister for Economic Development answered that question yesterday.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Hunter, a supplementary question.
MS HUNTER: Minister, given that the clean energy future package is currently designed to achieve a five per cent emissions reduction, what additional measures is your directorate working on to augment the commonwealth proposal and ensure that we achieve a 40 per cent emissions reduction?
MR CORBELL: As Ms Hunter would know, the government is currently finalising a range of important policy statements which will outline a range of strategies and actions, including the energy policy which has been agreed to by cabinet and will be released very shortly, as well as action plan 2 of our climate change strategy, as well as measures to encourage large-scale renewable energy.
As Ms Hunter should know, the government has already announced its intention in the spring legislation program to introduce legislation for a large-scale feed-in tariff and the allocation of 40 megawatts of renewable energy. So there is a range of actions ongoing. All of these have been publicly ventilated previously. They have been the subject of debate in this place previously and I am surprised that Ms Hunter has not been paying attention.
MR SESELJA: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Minister, how much will the 40 per cent target cost the ACT government and how much will it cost the ACT economy?
MR CORBELL: The cost will depend on the range of specific measures and actions—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Corbell has the floor.
MR CORBELL: The cost to the community will depend on the specific measures and actions that are proposed to implement the reduction targets. Those costs are the subject of current rigorous analysis across government as we finalise action plan 2. The details of that will be released for public comment later this year.
It is, of course, worth making the observation that apparently Mr Seselja believes that he can achieve a 30 per cent reduction at no cost to the Canberra community. The fact
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