Page 531 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 8 March 2011
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backed away from the $30 million in assistance that they promised, and for this they have been criticised. On the face of it, this might seem like reasonable criticism. Surely here is an example of a government that effectively promised $30 million and then walked away from it.
But it is over-simplistic to say that this is a broken promise. It would be if we did not think that we would achieve the policy objective that sits at the heart of the agreement item. If we thought we were not going to get any renewable energy capacity, then I would say yes, it is a broken promise. But the reality of what this was about, something that the Canberra Liberals failed to understand at the time, is that the policy mechanism announced by the government was a far better policy mechanism to deliver real results on the ground.
An industrial-scale feed-in tariff is a well-used mechanism around the globe to bring on the development of renewable energy generation, and with the government being given a clear message that the $30 million was not going to deliver that policy outcome—and that was a message delivered clearly by industry—it made good sense to review it. It would have been a mistake to pursue the stated path when it was abundantly clear that there was a better mechanism to achieve the desired outcome.
As I said, we did go to the election with a number of promises that were put into the agreement. We have managed to get a library back in the inner south—one that is open in Kingston and is well loved and well used. There has been the introduction of a rapid bus service, particularly the Redex one that has gone from a trial to now being incorporated in the system. We hope to see more of the Redex or rapid bus-type systems.
Yes, someone raised the issue about the banning of plastic bags and the fact that this somehow was a broken promise because we moved from a levy. The simple fact is that legal advice was sought and it is just not possible for the ACT to put a levy on plastic bags. Therefore, we looked at the policy outcome we wanted to achieve. The policy outcome we want to achieve is fewer plastic bags in our environment, and therefore it was decided to move on to a ban. That just shows we are still going to achieve an outcome but there is a better way to do it. (Time expired.)
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.16): It is clear from the presentations from Mr Doszpot and Mr Seselja that the Liberal opposition here have been given their riding instructions from the Liberal Party headquarters and they are that they must now bring here issues that are of importance to the federal parliament, to continue attacks against governments that are trying desperately to deal with issues of major concern to the community—yet again another example of our local opposition unable to think for themselves, unable to grapple with the major issues facing this community, and prepared to accept hook, line and sinker from Liberal Party headquarters, just like they did on the self-government motion this morning—
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): Order! Mr Doszpot, please.
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