Page 781 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
does it mean for changing consumer behaviour? What is the impact on Canberra residents?
The ACT’s first greenhouse emissions inventory showed that carbon emissions in 2009 actually increased by 1.3 per cent. One option in the draft of the weathering the change action plan has a capital cost of $2.7 billion. So what is the cost of meeting those targets? The government is yet to explain what that cost is.
Then there is the 90 per cent renewable target. Electricity bills have already increased by 85 per cent in the ACT since 2001. This year we saw another 17.74 per cent increase in electricity prices, with most of it attributed to federal Labor’s and the Greens’ carbon tax.
Research released by CHOICE in 2012 shows that electricity is the expense that household decision makers are most concerned about. Despite this, the government is pursuing the 90 per cent renewable energy target which will see electricity bills skyrocket in the ACT.
Based on current average energy consumption and the price of renewable energy, the 90 per cent target will add $490 a year to household bills. The government believes that it will only cost $60 a year between 2018 and 2020. However, this is based on a very bold assumption of households reducing energy consumption and renewable energy prices falling.
While the price of renewable energy may indeed go down, this is just an expectation. It is a guess. The federal government’s own energy white paper states:
While many clean energy technologies are currently not cost-competitive, that is not expected to change … over the next two decades.
We will have to wait and see exactly what that change is, but the government prices are based on a very bold assumption. Consumer behaviour would also need to change. The ICRC in the last year has increased the average energy electricity consumption in the ACT from 7,280 kWh to 8,000. There is also a cost to the government of running the street lights, the hospitals, the schools, and that is all going to be passed on to ACT taxpayers
We have things like the human rights compliant prison. An amount of $140 million was expended on capital for that prison that we argue should have gone to health expenditure. But that prison is now costing an additional $8 million a year because of the cost of housing prisoners in the ACT as opposed to the cost of housing prisoners in New South Wales.
What we are seeing in that prison as well is further ideological expenses. We have already had a number of reviews at whatever cost to try and put the needle and syringe program in, a needle and syringe program that the government’s own report said would lead to the quasi-legalisation of drug use, and a needle and syringe program that is strongly rejected by the staff at the prison.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video