Page 2394 - Week 06 - Thursday, 10 May 2012
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targets, you see that it was a 14 per cent increase above 1990 levels by 2020. This was at a time when the scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in international negotiations in Bali and other places, were identifying that we needed to be making cuts for developing countries in the range of 25 to 40 per cent.
That is what we have seen now, and that is one of the differences of having a balance of power situation in this Assembly. We have gone from having an emissions increase target of 14 per cent above 1990 levels by 2020 to a 40 per cent reduction target by 2020. That is a massive turnaround. That is the consequence of having a balance of power situation in this Assembly. The Greens have been able to work with the Labor Party to begin to turn around the oil tanker.
This is not a simple exercise. The cheap analysis around the commissioner for the environment’s report simply fails to recognise that these trends do take time to change. But we have set in place some of the measures that will begin to turn that oil tanker around, and I think that the next commissioner for the environment’s report will begin to demonstrate that.
In her earlier remarks, Ms Hunter went through a range of issues. She went through the 41 points under action plan 1 and discussed them specifically. It is a valuable contribution to public discourse in the ACT, because it looks at each of the measures and undertakes that analysis of how they played out.
There were varying performances against the original criteria. Some of the criteria were very difficult to judge, in the sense that they were not measurable: they were vague, they were unspecific or they did not have a number attached to them. This is where the importance of this analysis comes through as the government sets to adopt action plan 2. It is quite important that in action plan 2 the targets are much clearer, much more specific and more measurable and that the community is able to see how they are actually working.
The Seventh Assembly has seen different outcomes from what was adopted in action plan 1 in the Sixth Assembly. The energy efficiency legislation that we passed last week is an example of the sorts of measures that we now need. That reflects the new commitment to action in this place that has been a feature of the Seventh Assembly.
That new legislation is measurable, it has a very specific target, it is enforceable, and it will deliver actual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It is quite clear that there are consequences that will flow from that legislation—a real change in behaviour. That is the sort of change the Greens have brought to this Assembly, and I think that that reflects well.
I think also, to be fair to the government, that that is why you do this analysis and why you reflect on past programs. I am very pleased to see that, despite some of the weaknesses of action plan 1, the programs that are now being implemented on the whole are stronger programs, better programs and programs that will deliver the sort of change the ACT community expects this place to deliver.
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