Page 868 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 27 February 2013
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The federal government carbon price will certainly assist here in the ACT, both with driving a clean economy and helping to turn around our emissions profile. But we also need to have policies that complement the carbon price and allow the ACT to access those benefits more readily and ensure we can make our city ready for a low carbon future.
We in the Greens are certainly very proud of the work we have done over the years to help drive this agenda forward. In the past, again coming to some of Mr Smyth’s remarks, I certainly have been concerned at the rate of policy development from the government on this issue, and a number of policy initiatives were delivered in a much slower time frame. Nonetheless, and to the credit of both the government and the partnership that we formed with them last term, we have seen significant progress in a range of areas, including the legislation to deliver on the 40 per cent target, the passage of the energy efficiency legislation compelling retailers to introduce measures across the community, the large-scale solar-feed in tariff and the delivery of action plan 2.
These are all very positive initiatives that have been delivered in the last four years and will have a significant influence in turning around the ACT’s emissions profiles. Certainly the Greens and many in the community are excited by the level of ambition that has been set in place in the ACT and given the areas of common interest between both the Greens and the ALP, I am optimistic that we are going to make significant progress in chasing that ambition.
I have circulated an amendment. I flag that I intend to move it. Obviously we have Mr Smyth’s amendment on the table. So I will need to seek leave from members to move that once we have dealt with Mr Smyth’s amendment.
The amendment acknowledges some of the specific policies that will help deliver the 40 per cent target and that have been agreed between the ALP and the Greens in the new parliamentary agreement, the 2012 version. And I think again we see some very useful initiatives here. My amendment seeks to add to what Ms Berry has already prepared, by pointing to the forward-looking agenda. That includes implementing the new renewable electricity consumption target of 90 per cent renewables by 2020. I spoke about that in the debate earlier this morning when I referred to the potential cost savings that can be delivered between that target and a range of other measures for households in reducing their quarterly energy bills.
We have also got a provision to provide a 20-year guaranteed payment, at a price commensurate to the large-scale auction price, for households and businesses installing solar PV systems up to 200 kilowatts. What we have seen in recent years is a very significant private investment in electricity-generating infrastructure in this city. It goes back to the efforts first started by Mr Gentleman in the Sixth Assembly to recognise that there is real value in having households invest their own money in electricity generation and provide clean energy into the grid. Canberra has a significant level of roof space, and we should be using that roof space to generate clean, green energy, and this sort of policy will continue the good work that has previously been started.
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