Page 5242 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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was not enough—you might support the 30 per cent with a view of increasing it down the track. This government, the Labor Party here, chose not to. They have not spoken in favour of those targets.
There has been significant leadership, both in government and in opposition. We have had leadership in terms of some of the policies we took to the last election. The record in government was ahead of all the other governments in the country, without a doubt. Then we had a continuation of that in the policy debate and the policy positions being put forward from opposition.
Unfortunately, we cannot fix the Stanhope government’s record on climate change. I will come to that. It is touched on in the first part of Ms Porter’s motion. We cannot fix it, but we can go back to the leadership that was shown last time we were in government and what we have advocated in opposition.
At the last election, we had issues like the home insulation policy; the solar power plant and renewable energy park; and the establishment of “Climate Change Canberra”, a climate change task force, based on a UK model, that would drive efforts to identify energy and emission savings in government and the private sector. The UK experience has shown that such bodies have cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 75 per cent by identifying poor practices in resource use and building design. That is a practical measure that would make a real difference. It has been proven to make a real difference.
It is about showing leadership in a number of ways. There are a number of ways that governments can show leadership on this issue. You can set targets. You can set long-term targets and you can set medium-term targets. You can then also take actions. You can take direct actions. You have got to start in your own backyard. You have got to start with the way government does business. That is the most obvious way and the most significant and direct leadership role that can be shown very early by governments.
Yet on many issues we see that on the one hand the government tells the community that we should have very ambitious targets for a long way away but on the other hand sometimes we cannot even get basic information on how the government conducts its own affairs. When we ask about how much the government recycles in its own departments, we cannot get clear answers. We cannot get clear answers about how much the department of environment recycles.
There are a number of ways you can show leadership. You can show leadership in your own activities; you can show leadership in the kinds of legislation you have and the kinds of targets you have. We need the whole mix of all of those things. But governments, in order to set ambitious targets, in order to set strong and achievable targets, particularly in the medium term, need to have the credibility in the community that they can deliver. They need to have the credibility to be able to say, “Well, look, we are making decisions on the way we do things. We are leading by example. We are going to ask the community to come with us but we will take that first step.” On a number of these things, we see that that is lacking.
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