Page 1533 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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Energy Conservation
DR KINLOCH: My question is also to the Chief Minister. In the light of the Commonwealth Government's initiative in providing an energy conservation guide to every Australian home, what is the ACT Government doing for our community?
MR KAINE: First of all, let me say that the Government supports the Commonwealth's initiatives in this matter which they have taken to inform and educate the community on how we can all contribute to energy conservation. The ACT is not excluded from that. We have a responsibility, just as everybody else does. We support the initiatives of the Commonwealth Government in that matter. We would want to see people in the ACT following those guidelines and conserving energy in the national interest and in the interests of this community.
The Alliance Government has already taken some significant initiatives of its own that go, perhaps, beyond what the Commonwealth is now proposing. If you only look at this year's budget you will see that we are spending about $1m in this fiscal year on energy efficiency measures in our schools, in ACTION depots, and in our motor vehicle registries, to be specific. We are spending $1m and we expect to save about $350,000 a year as a result of that expenditure. That is not only an investment in the environment; it is an investment in future expenditure reduction as well. In fact those measures, I am told, will reduce by nearly four tonnes a year the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. That is a very significant achievement.
In the area of public transport, ACTION has already got programs going to replace its buses. It is investigating the use of compressed natural gas powered vehicles. These, of course, will be less polluting than the ones that they have now. Again, they will result in financial savings as well as having some positive environmental effects.
Ms Follett: He is reading very slowly.
Mr Berry: He does not want any more questions; the pressure is on.
MR KAINE: The only environmental pollution that is coming at the moment is from opposite.
The Government is also giving priority to examining and responding to the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment which, as members will recall, only recently inquired into energy issues. We are also looking at the further development of comprehensive and effective energy conservation policies for the ACT itself to supplement those of the Commonwealth. I think it is obvious that, whether we have any guidelines specifically on that issue or not, we are already taking some very significant measures.
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