Page 5954 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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MS BURCH: I have honoured my commitment and I have sought assurances from the Community Services Directorate. Their advice to me was that this was going to be a contract in place for ongoing maintenance and upkeep.
Environment—climate change impact assessment
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Chief Minister and concerns climate change impact assessment and triple bottom line assessment. The government has just released the climate change impact assessment discussion paper for consultation, with feedback due in March next year. Has this climate change impact assessment as outlined in the discussion paper been used in the pilot triple bottom line assessment process for the 15 cabinet submissions currently being evaluated?
MS GALLAGHER: We have had some discussion around this. Essentially, the answer is, yes, it is included in the analysis being done for the triple bottom line reporting. In time—and once the consultations have finished on the discussion paper that is out—it will form part of that. The timing of it, I can understand, is a little bit confusing in that we have got the triple bottom line out for discussion, but we are trialling it, and now we have got, in a sense, a subset of that out for discussion as well. Essentially, the answer is yes, but it will form part of it more formally once that work has been completed.
MS LE COUTEUR: Supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Le Couteur.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, given that the climate change assessment framework is ready for use now, why has it taken so long to release the consultation?
MS GALLAGHER: The answer is that we are trying to embed those processes in our cabinet processes now, to see how they work, but we also wanted to get some feedback from other experts, the community, and we will pool our experience together with that feedback into formalising the processes—no reason other than that. I can certainly check for you in terms of how many—I think we might have had a question on notice about it—of the submissions have gone through this process as well and I can update the Assembly on that.
MS HUNTER: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, does the environmental assessment with the TBL framework you have used also include sustainability assessment, not just climate change impact assessment?
MS GALLAGHER: I do not have the documents in front of me. I think the answer to that is yes, but I will take some advice and, if I need to check that and provide more
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