Page 3907 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 25 September 2019
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But there was more than one comment he made about which I thought, “I’ve heard that before.” When I thought about it, it was actually George W Bush’s comment that it reminded me of, the comment he made for the Rio Earth Summit in 1992:
The American way of life is not up for negotiation.
That comment at the time was George W Bush saying, “We’re not going to get involved in climate action. We’re not going to take it because we don’t want to change anything we are doing.” That was the sense that I got from Mr Coe’s argument.
The problem with that is that, if you do nothing, if you have business as usual, we will continue to see a warming climate. And we cannot continue to have that. The impacts and the effects of that are far too extreme. We must take action to mitigate the effects of climate change on our environment, our economy and our community. The implementation of the ACT climate strategy of this government will ensure that every Canberran is provided with the support and resources to act against the climate crisis.
I look forward to working with the Canberra community to deliver on the priorities of this strategy. I am confident that a comprehensive awareness and education program will be warmly received by our community and will raise that awareness, much the same way as the one conversation I had with my dad when, 10 minutes later, his problems were not there. I commend Mr Gupta’s motion to the Assembly, and I look forward to voting for it.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tertiary Education, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (5.46): I thank Mr Gupta for bringing this matter before the Assembly this afternoon. The motion is quite comprehensive in stepping through the various elements of the climate strategy. I will particularly focus my comments this afternoon on: measures to support Canberra households and improve the livability of our city in response to climate change; how we go about delivering on the next phase of our city’s journey towards zero net emissions by 2045; how that will assist households to save on energy costs, noting the important correlation between our work within the strategy and the government’s new living infrastructure plan to increase the comfort and enviable lifestyle of our suburbs by keeping our streets, parks and houses cool, healthy and livable; and looking at the transition towards zero emission vehicles as we make that change along with the rest of the world.
In large part, given that we no longer manufacture vehicles in Australia, the vehicles that will be available for purchase in our nation in the coming decades will be determined by the transition in the large manufacturing markets away from internal combustion energy vehicles. This will perhaps initially be with a combination of hybrid and/or electric vehicles, but ultimately electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be the predominant form of power for personal transport, I imagine well before 2045. Certainly they will be an increasing part of our country’s automotive future.
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