Page 676 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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We support, and always have supported, environmental initiatives. But of equal concern to us is the cost impact on households. Today, I remind the minister of the need to integrate social, economic and environmental policy objectives. We cannot afford—literally cannot afford—to make Canberra more unaffordable for families. The minister assures us that the government’s strategy is affordable. This is easy to say when you earn a good salary, have a comfortable home and sip on chai lattes, but not all Canberrans are as lucky, and any increase in prices is going to have a dramatic effect on families already living in poverty or teetering on the brink. These may include single-income families and self-funded retirees. Let us note that small businesses will be especially hard hit.
The problem with this bill is that, in comparison with the rest of the country, our emissions are almost irrelevant. If we take the 2011 data, for example, in total, Australia had 551.34 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. Of that 551 million tonnes, the ACT made up just 1.17. That equates to 0.21 per cent. That is, the ACT makes up not even half of one per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Not even half of one per cent! Yet this government wants to increase electricity prices for ACT residents while using renewable energy that could otherwise be used by New South Wales for no gain other than bragging rights for reaching unrealistic targets.
Almost as importantly, this government wants us to pay through the nose for it. It wants to have the bragging rights but does not want it in their own backyard. They want to use someone else’s backyard. The government would have you believe that any renewable generator—no matter where it is located, who pays for it or what its economic and environmental impacts are—is a good thing. The only way the ACT can get to a 40 per cent reduction in all emissions is to buy a 90 per cent reduction in emissions attributed to electricity. The only viable means to achieving 90 per cent renewable energy is by contracting with new wind turbines and waste-to-electricity generators. We will not tolerate these things in the ACT, so they have to be located outside the ACT, somewhere in the national energy market.
The government wants us here in the ACT to go to 90 per cent reduction in emissions, against a national 20 per cent, on the basis that if some is good, more is better. What this means is that Minister Corbell is leading us into an economic drain on the ACT by tying us to future renewable electricity generation from outside the ACT. Furthermore, it will come at a cost to individuals and communities in our region who do not want wind farms in their area just so the ACT can brag about its superior environmental credentials but without any visible impact.
The Canberra Liberals are committed to do what we can to ease cost-of-living pressures on Canberra families. If the government was serious about a sustainable future in the ACT, rather than simply wanting national bragging rights, we would look at practical ways to clean up our environment without increasing pressure on our families and without a net economic drain on the ACT.
To make a true judgement on this bill, we need to understand the full costs and the situation the ACT would actually be in. For example, what price will we be paying for
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