Page 3666 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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Mr Coe has described the new climate strategy as a gross intervention. What is it for the Liberal Party? Are we going to deal with climate change or is dealing with climate change a gross intervention? In the laissez faire world of the Liberal Party it is a gross intervention to deal with the most significant environmental challenge facing our planet. That is what we have heard Mr Coe say this week.
Mr Coe said in what was a borderline hysterical interview that the ACT government is deliberately driving up the cost of petrol. What evidence has he got for that? This is the fearmongering and disgraceful tactics we have seen from the Canberra Liberals this week. This does not help anybody in our community move through what are challenging issues.
We have had Miss C Burch tweeting that the Chief Minister wants to ban people from using their cars on the weekends. That is not the government policy. That is not in the climate strategy. This is outrageous. It is their own social media echo chamber, and that is probably the saving grace here, but this is not government policy.
I call on the Canberra Liberals to enter into this debate with a degree of integrity. Mr Hanson has said we should not have alarmism. I completely agree with him, but let’s look at who is peddling the alarmism in this city.
The climate strikers came yesterday to visit the Assembly. I thank Ms Le Couteur, Mr Gupta, Mr Pettersson, Mr Gentlemen, Ms Orr, Ms Cheyne, Ms Stephen-Smith and Ms Berry for joining me in welcoming them into the Assembly and taking the time to listen to them. There was, of course, a remarkable dearth of members from the other side of the chamber who bothered to come along and listen.
Ms Cheyne: How many?
MR RATTENBURY: I believe Mr Parton walked past—probably on his way out to get lunch—and stopped for a minute or two, so credit for that. But the rest of the Canberra Liberals were so busy apparently that they could not listen to the students who had an important point to make to the members of this Assembly. Mr Hanson was too busy back in his office thinking up mean tweets to direct at the climate strikers. Is that the best thing he has to do with his time? Surely he can find a better use of his time then dreaming up mean tweets directed at students.
We will continue to put in place sensible policies that produce an orderly transition for the ACT to being a clean, green, renewable city of the future with a striving economic sector based on the industries of the future. We will not resort to the alarmism. We will not be cowed by the outrageous tactics of the Canberra Liberals. We will continue to talk to the community about the important steps that need to be taken to address the most serious environmental issue this planet faces.
Discussion concluded.
Executive business—precedence
Ordered that executive business be called on.
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