Page 2789 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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This government says that is the transition we need to make. We do need to reduce that reliance. We do need to stop households being hostage to the increases in fossil fuel generation costs that we know are going to continue to occur. The government has set out a strong and proactive program to achieve this. The 90 per cent renewable energy target is designed to address our greenhouse gas emissions, to meet our legislated greenhouse gas target, and at the same time to support jobs and economic activity in our city and in our region.
Labor do care about the everyday family, the everyday citizen. We care about what they are going to pay for electricity and gas into the future. We know that if we stick with electricity and gas from coal and other fossil fuel sources the prices are going to continue to increase, but we also know that the prices will stabilise and be much more reliable if we switch to renewable sources. We know also that if we support energy efficiency measures we can reduce the costs to households.
Once again we hear the Liberal opposition stand up in this place and say they are concerned about household energy costs. But this is from the party that voted against an energy efficiency law that delivers savings, for every household that participates, of $300, on average, on their electricity bill and their gas bill. They voted against that law. They voted against a piece of legislation that drives down household energy consumption and therefore household costs. They have no credibility, Madam Speaker, on this so-called claim that they are interested in these issues. If they were, they would have supported a law that saves households money on their electricity bills and on their gas bills, but they have continually failed to do so.
The 90 per cent renewable energy target is important. It is important because the key sector for our city’s greenhouse gas emissions is electricity consumption in the residential building area and in the commercial building area. If we are to achieve a 40 per cent reduction on our greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, decarbonisation of the electricity supply sector is critical to meet that objective. That is why the 90 per cent renewable energy target is in place.
We hear criticism from the Liberal Party that our targets are too high and too ambitious when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, but they were not thinking that back in 2008, Madam Speaker. In 2008 the Liberal Party released a policy called “Leadership on climate change: cleaning up our ACT”. In that policy they said very clearly that their reduction targets were a cut of 60 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050 and a reduction of 30 per cent on 1990 levels by the end of 2020. So it is not substantially different from what is now enacted into law. In fact, it is pretty close. There was a big debate about it at the time, back in 2009-10, but the facts were the Liberals had a policy that they unilaterally walked away from after the 2008 election. Ever since then they have been missing in action on the issue of climate change and on making the transition to a low carbon future. Whether it is supporting renewable energy, whether it is supporting energy efficiency or whether it is giving people more choices when it comes to better public transport, they have been missing in action.
The renewable energy target will drive the uptake of large-scale renewable energy generation in our city and in our region. As a city and as a region we are blessed with
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