Page 1923 - Week 07 - Thursday, 31 May 1990
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ACT GREENHOUSE STRATEGY
Ministerial Statement
Debate resumed from 3 May 1990, on motion by Mr Kaine:
That the Assembly takes note of the following papers:
ACT Greenhouse Strategy - ministerial statement, 26 April 1990;
Developing an ACT Strategy to Respond to the Greenhouse Effect.
MR WOOD (11.59): The business we are discussing is the Government paper on strategies to handle the greenhouse effect. No-one in this house will dispute the urgency of this debate or the importance of this paper to the ACT community. Two matters in particular have focused the attention of the community on the importance of the environment. These are the greenhouse effect and, along with it, the depletion of the ozone layer. In years gone by, as people endeavoured to focus the community's mind on the importance of the environment, action was not always rapid in coming. But, now that there is a genuine fear in the community about the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer, people are much more inclined to listen to those voices of concern about the environment. So great is the acceptance in the community of the need to nurture our environment and do nothing to damage it that even the Liberal Party is acknowledging the strength of the argument of the greens.
I want to stress to this Assembly that the community will accept strong policies, policies that will have a considerable impact on people's lifestyles. I believe that the Government could be less cautious than it has been in this paper. Let me give a couple of examples. In discussing the question of energy conservation in buildings, the paper says "requiring the incorporation of thermal insulation in new buildings".
That is good. We have no arguments about that. I assume that the word "requiring" means exactly that - that the building code will be altered so that all new buildings in this Territory, both domestic and commercial, will have a set standard of insulation incorporated. I take it that is what that word "requiring" means, that it is not just a soft word.
I think that the community now has reached the stage where it will sacrifice the en suite, the family room or the study so that the money can go into insulation. We see fine large homes - indeed, they are much too large - being built. The sellers put out a great list of the features of those homes and, of course, to keep the price down they leave out insulation - in many cases, insulation that cannot be put in at a later stage. I think that we should sacrifice the hitherto high selling points of en suites and so on and demand that that insulation go in. But I think
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