Page 4384 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 25 October 2017
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measures and, importantly, will be linked to the transport for Canberra review. We will continue to work with other jurisdictions to promote a coordinated approach to encouraging the take-up of electric vehicles in Australia.
The ACT government has not yet installed any public electric vehicle-charging infrastructure. However, ActewAGL have installed eight chargers at seven locations across the ACT as a pilot project. These are in the city, Canberra Airport, Tuggeranong town centre, Acton, Manuka and Belconnen town centre. ActewAGL have advised that information gained during their pilot is having a significant influence on their consideration of future locations.
The government is also excited about the possibility of potential partnerships with organisations such as the NRMA, who on Friday last week announced a bold new strategy and signalled very clearly that they are keen to work together with local councils and governments to install public electric vehicle chargers across regional New South Wales and the ACT. I congratulate the NRMA on their strong leadership on this matter.
Clearly the uptake of electric vehicles is a global trend gathering momentum, as I saw and reported on during the recent tour of North American cities in May this year. There is clearly a role for progressive governments like this ACT Labor government to help lead the transition to a lower emissions transport sector.
At 6 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, Minister for Corrections and Minister for Mental Health) (6.01): I welcome this discussion and thank Mr Steel for bringing it forward. This is an incredibly important and complex policy area when it comes to addressing climate change, from both the adaptation and the mitigation points of view. I appreciate Mr Steel’s interest in energy issues and renewable energy technologies in particular.
I would like to talk about some of the issues relating to battery technology. In some ways this goes to the content of Ms Lee’s speech, where she flagged the issue of reliability. There is no doubt that reliability is a key issue in the grid. I would like to talk about some of the points Ms Lee made in her speech a little later, because I think her speech represented a fundamental misunderstanding of a number of events that have taken place and future questions about reliability in the energy market.
In the motion Mr Steel has touched on some key points. Renewable energy, battery technologies and storage technologies generally will play a critical role in any future where we make serious efforts to address climate change. It is an area where we must make serious efforts and serious investment. Climate change is going to impact, and in fact is already impacting, every aspect of the planet and its ecology, as well as every part of human society.
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