Page 3238 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Leave granted.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (12.04): Mr Stanhope said that the opposition was opposed to this bill and wanted to close down the GGAS scheme as it currently stands. That is not the position of the opposition and it has never been the position of the opposition. We supported the introduction of this scheme and, even if we were to vote against this bill today, which we will not do, it would not close down the GGAS scheme. What Mr Stanhope said there was entirely untrue.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (12.05): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 3312].
As I mentioned earlier, the Greens are concerned about this greenhouse gas abatement scheme continuing from now until 2020 with the existing flat benchmark. This legislation has greenhouse gas emission reductions from 2005 to 2007. But, sadly, it requires no further decreases. It is, frankly, not acceptable that the benchmarks are set from now until 2012—that is 2012, not 2010—at a flat 7.27 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions per head of ACT population.
My amendment proposes further reducing the benchmark by five per cent each year; that is for 2008 the benchmark will be reduced to 6.91 tonnes per head, for 2009 it will go down to 6.56 tonnes per head and so on until the year 2012, when the benchmark will be 5.63 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions per head of ACT population. Continuing the flat benchmark in this time when everyone is so aware of climate change prices is ludicrous and it is hard for me to understand how Mr Stanhope, after his strong speech in which he condemned the Prime Minister, and rightfully so, for inaction, has not indicated that he is prepared to move beyond the legislation that he tabled in March.
It is the Greens’ intention to make this legislation worth talking about and to change it to make the benchmarks have the effect of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We can do this. Just because New South Wales has taken on the status quo approach does not make it okay. I think we would all agree that New South Wales is doing quite a few things in relation to greenhouse gas emissions that we may not like, including opening up new coalmines at a time when all the signs are pointing the other way.
Today we have the opportunity to stand aside and think seriously about the consequences of our decisions. If this scheme is to continue until 2020—and I have already argued, and so have Mrs Dunne and Mr Stefaniak, that it should not—the Greens believe that we must install more rigorous benchmarks. Indeed, if it continues until 2012 as it is currently, unless a federal government brings in a new scheme in
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .