Page 259 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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property if you live in Canberra because of the inactivity of this government. They simply have not got a clue.
Mr Hargreaves said he did not understand what a sustainability industry was. Dr Foskey says she wants to set up the ACT as a centre of sustainability industries. John, I am pleased to tell you that Mr Quinlan knew because he funded, through the knowledge funds, firms like Perpetual Water, who were setting up systems that were affordable and that people could incorporate in their homes so that they could contribute to sustainability. At the same time, you have got the industry based in Canberra. It shows that we are a smart city. It uses environmentally friendly materials. That is a sustainability industry.
Before that, we funded things like prime water. The prime example of that, pardon the pun, is at Tidbinbilla where the water retention system is. We have now got firms in the ACT like GECKO, who are using environmentally friendly building materials, that help make homes more environmentally friendly so that homes use less energy and we put less demand on the environment. They are the things we should be looking at. As we said in our creative Canberra document, environmental industries are an industry of the future and we should be capitalising on them on in the ACT. Yet again, we were ahead of the game; we knew exactly what had to be done; and we were out there doing it.
When you look at what the Chief Minister said, all you can say is that his plan was a long time coming. To have somebody stand here and say that it is a most significant issue for the century and virtually to have done nothing in the last five years, except unwind, wind back and delay what the previous government had done, shows that it is, again, just words. They are just words because they mean nothing.
It is very important that we all understand the part we have to play in this. We are lucky that, in Canberra—through a combination of climate, the expertise we have here, the research institutions that we have here, the government departments that we have here and the small business people that we have here—there is the potential and an enormous opportunity for Canberra to develop world-renowned expertise in sustainable energies. The word from Andrew Black of the ANU, which we were pleased to support as the previous government, is a clear indication of that.
I do not know whether members are aware of the Desert Knowledge CRC. It is a research centre that looks at desert-based technology. It is based in Alice Springs. They are doing enormous work that is applicable to our Aboriginal and isolated communities, but it has enormous potential to be taken overseas. They are the things that we have to be working towards.
With all due respect to the details of Dr Foskey’s motion, I simply note that the Stanhope government has generally gone backwards in its approach to environmental policies and practices and in particular note that we used to be acknowledged as a world leader in sustainability; we used to be out there talking about it, selling it and making sure people knew that they could make a change; and we were a Mecca in many ways. Delegations from Wales, Mexico City, the Cook Islands, Singapore, South Africa and Australia used to come to Canberra to look at, for instance, NOWaste by 2010. But other places now have bypassed us on that whole issue. They
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