Page 3791 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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members individually to the Labor-Greens environmental policy. It “calls on Assembly members” to “support the government’s comprehensive strategy”, and “calls on Assembly members” to “call on the federal government”.
It calls on Assembly members to do something, rather than calling on the ACT Legislative Assembly to do something. This means in theory that if this motion passes it is tying us all in to having and promoting these same views, which you cannot actually do. It is called human rights, Mr Assistant Speaker. I actually have the right to disagree with you or Ms Berry and think for myself and have my own opinions, whether you like it or not. A vote of the Assembly cannot force me to change that and cannot force me to support the government’s strategy.
Moving from the wording itself to the real point of this motion, the Canberra Liberals believe in the importance of a balance between economic, social and environmental policy and decisions. We believe it is important to take into consideration the economic and social impacts of environment policy and vice versa. But this government has taken this too far.
In the ACT we emit less than half of one per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions—less than half of one per cent—yet the radical Greens-Labor government are trying to grandstand and force negative economic and social impacts on the people of Canberra simply to prove a point, so that they can go to COAG, Denmark or wherever—take your pick—and waltz around spruiking that they are the best, with their 90 per cent renewable energy targets.
But do they confess that it is going to increase electricity bills, from their own conservative estimate, by 16 per cent? Do they confess that, along with increasing rates, parking fees, public transport costs and everything else, they are likely to increase the cost of living in Canberra for a tiny environmental gain, if any at all?
The Canberra Liberals want to decrease emissions too. In 2008 the policy we took to the election was for a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It was reasonable, achievable and affordable for the people of the ACT. This government likes to run with policies which cause a lot of pain for little gain.
This motion, I feel, is simply a waste of time. Everyone in this place knows the Canberra Liberals will not support the increase in electricity costs for Canberra families for no gain. That is no surprise. So what we really have in this motion today is the government trying to play politics between us and the federal government. It is simply a cheap political stunt to try to paint us as the climate change deniers. I am not at all ashamed to say that I do not agree with the Labor-Greens government on this. I can stand here knowing that I will continue to do what I can to assist with environmental issues but I will always do it in balance with economic and social needs as well.
We live in one of the coldest cities in the country. We have pensioners struggling to pay bills, and we heard strongly recently from the Tuggeranong Community Council about pensioners who are unable to pay their utility bills and had the electricity cut off. I can stand tall knowing that the Canberra Liberals do not support policies which will make it even harder for those pensioners to heat their homes in winter.
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