Page 891 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007

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Thursday, 3 May 2007

The Assembly met at 10.30 am.

(Quorum formed.)

MR SPEAKER (Mr Berry) took the chair and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

Environment Protection (Fuel Sales Data) Amendment Bill 2007

Mr Stanhope, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.

Title read by Clerk.

MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts) (10.32): I move:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

Over the last two years the ACT has made a commitment to developing an effective climate change strategy. This will require, among other things, a commitment on our part to monitor greenhouse gases. Transport fuels are the second greatest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the ACT, 23 per cent compared with 15 per cent nationally. Carbon dioxide emissions from the transport sector can be accurately estimated by multiplying the volume of fuel sold in a year for each fuel type by an emission factor. Unfortunately, there are no currently reliable statistics that report on the sale of transport fuels in the ACT. Without effective data it is difficult to keep track of this significant portion of our emissions. The ACT has in the past relied on indirect sampling estimates based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey data of average fuel consumption and distances travelled by ACT vehicles. This data has proven to be inadequate for the purposes of emissions monitoring.

The purpose of this amendment is to mandate the provision of fuel sales data from ACT fuel retailers for the calculation of the relevant greenhouse gas emissions. This will facilitate the monitoring of the implementation of the climate change strategy. Discussions with ACT industry indicate that service station owners have this data available but are concerned about maintaining its confidentiality as this information is a key indicator of a station’s financial performance. Therefore, the proposed legislation clearly states that data collected could only be used for the calculation of the associated emissions and be released only in an aggregated format.

This bill is an essential component of our overall greenhouse strategy and will assist the community greatly in monitoring transport greenhouse gas emissions. The government is committed to developing a climate change strategy with a strong response to the issues of climate change. An effective means of monitoring our


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