Page 604 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 March 2023
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kids under the age of five about issues affecting her and her community. Given I have been an advocate of the issue of wood heating in this place, I could not help but notice the wood heater burning in the background in the lounge room. I asked my constituent if she had installed it herself. She said to me, “No, I rent. Landlords left that here and I prefer to use it because it is cheaper.” I asked out of curiosity, “Where did you get the wood?” because we hear so often from enthusiastic proponents of wood heaters that wood is ethically sourced. She said enthusiastically, “My neighbours actually did me a favour, Johnathan. When they ripped out their old kitchen when they were renovating, they gave me all of the old pieces of kitchen equipment.” That is chipboard, covered in plastic, wrapped in oil-based paint. And she would burn that while her and her three young children slept in the lounge room during Canberra’s winter months. It is anecdotal, yes, but it is one example that continues to motivate me to work hard on this issue and to eliminate the scourge of wood heat smoke on some of the most vulnerable Canberrans, in this instance particularly children.
Nobody blames people doing the best they can within their means, but we talk a lot in this place about the cost of living crisis and the impact on low-income households. We have a real opportunity with a reform and tailor-made redesign of the Wood Heater Replacement Program to specifically target interventions to low income households and ensure people have choice in the way that they heat their homes, that they have choice to move to electrification, that they have the choice to move away from wood heaters, because at the moment so many Canberra families, some most marginalised and disadvantaged Canberra families, some of those families in my own electorate, are being left behind.
I look forward to continuing to work with my ACT Greens colleagues, the Minister for the Environment, Minister Vassarotti and Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Minister Rattenbury, who has carriage of this program. To work through the commissioner’s recommendations and connect them to our nation-leading plans to electrify our city by 2045; to introduce the right to a healthy environment into our Human Rights Act and to do exactly what people expect when they elect Greens to parliament. That is to protect our health and our environment, protect our air, protect our soil, protect our water and protect our planet.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Estimates 2023-2024—Select Committee
Establishment
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (10.57): I move:
That:
(1) a Select Committee on Estimates 2023-2024 be appointed to examine the expenditure proposals contained in the Appropriation Bill 2023-2024, the Appropriation (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Bill 2023-2024 and any revenue estimates proposed by the Government in the 2023-2024 Budget and prepare a report to the Assembly;
(2) the Committee be composed of:
(a) one Member to be nominated by the Labor Party;
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