Page 1254 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 2021
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Four of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals are positively impacted by the provisions from this bill: affordable and clean energy, climate action, responsible consumption and production, and sustainable cities and communities. A transparent cost analysis framework will reflect a move to clean energy production and the ACT government’s commitment to zero net greenhouse gas emissions.
ACT households and businesses will be more conscious about of making the switch from gas to greener sources of energy as finding the best energy deal will be made much simpler. Household and businesses will also be able to better understand their needs and the options and deals available to them. This is good news for our community, local businesses and the environment. I welcome and support this bill.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.51): I support this important reform introduced by the Chief Minister as Minister for Climate Action. The ACT has a proud record of delivering better outcomes for our citizens when it comes to the electricity sector. We have done this while supporting and leading the push to have more renewable energy both powering our city and making the national electricity market cleaner. Throughout my career in this place I have supported renewable energy. When I was first elected, I was proud to play my part in bringing in the first solar feed-in tariff for Canberrans. Since that reform, our city has gone on to be a leader in renewable energy.
At a time when the federal Liberals were relentlessly attacking renewable energy, it was this Labor government that provided a lifeline to the nation’s renewable energy sector—it was this Labor government that was pioneering and showing jurisdictions across the world how to power cities and states with 100 per cent renewable electricity. I am disappointed that the Liberal Party of Australia continues their ideological and illogical attacks on renewable energy. Only last week we saw the federal government veto a recommendation by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund to loan $280 billion to a wind farm project in north Queensland. This comes on the back a ludicrous notion from the Prime Minister that more fossil fuel generators are needed. This push by the Liberal dinosaurs to support more fossil fuel utilities goes against science, evidence and economics.
A recent report from the Climate Council shows that renewable energy supported by battery and other storage technology is the way forward for our electricity needs. Consider this: the so-called party of free market, the Liberals, are supporting a market intervention that supports outdated and expensive technology, over a renewable energy which is the cheapest and cleanest form of electricity in the national grid. The policies stand in stark contrast to the course being charted by the Chief Minister and ACT Labor.
It was this Labor government that took an ambitious and bold suite of climate and renewable policies to the last ACT election, the only major party to do so. These built on Labor’s record on climate action for Canberra. Emissions have reduced because of the efforts made to drive change across government and the territory to prepare the
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