Page 463 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 June 1989
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Let me come to a couple of particular points, commenting on other matters in this debate. In regard to environmentally sound houses, we cannot be so environmentally sound that the inside of the house becomes more polluted than the outside of the house, which is the case in some places when houses are made so airtight that there is no ventilation.
Our bus system is in good hands, and I understand they are exploring the possibility of gas powered buses. I say to Mrs Grassby, "Go to it". I think they are highly desirable. The Chief Minister pointed out that most of the pollution in Canberra comes off the roads, so let us do that.
Let us look to improving the efficiency of our wood burning stoves, which are very popular means of providing heat in the ACT. Let us do something more about that. I think the pamphlet is marvellous. There is probably not much more we can do than that. We certainly cannot take the further step of inspecting people's heaters, which would be a step beyond reason. But these are important considerations. We do not like the haze that hangs over the place, and it is up to us to do something about it.
The design of suburbs is important. Mr Collaery mentioned one suburb out there - the name escapes me for the moment - but the benefits that I saw when I first came to Canberra included no building on hills. We built in the valleys. But that brings environmental problems. We have to accept this constant balancing. The major message is that we have to balance what those in the community demand, what they will accept, and what we can lead them into accepting.
MR WHALAN (Minister for Industry, Employment and Education) (11.22): I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this motion, which the Government supports, because it is well known that the Australian Labor Party has led the field in its concern about the environment. We have seen a complete revolution in the approach to environmental issues at the national level since the Hawke Labor Government was elected in 1983. The commitment of the Australian Labor Party on environmental issues is well documented, it is clear, and it has been in place for a considerable time. By contrast, we have highly centralised parties like the Residents Rally party which has emerged in recent times and presented itself as having some monopoly interest in issues such as concern for the environment.
One of the Residents Rally speakers - Mr Moore, I think - referred to the Residents Rally party's policy on the environment. In fact, we took the trouble to have a computer analysis done comparing the Residents Rally party's policy on environment with the Labor Party's policy on environment, and even the spelling mistakes were the same. It is clear that the Residents Rally party's policy on the environment has been plagiarised from the Labor Party's policy. So we reject any suggestion that the Residents Rally party has a monopoly in this particular
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