Page 2796 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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I would like to reiterate, as many on this side of the chamber have done in the past and as those opposite already know, that renewable energy will, in the near future, be cheaper to produce than our current non-renewable methods. The Australian energy technology assessment developed cost estimates for 40 electricity generation technologies and came to the conclusion that by 2030 some renewable technologies, such as solar photovoltaic and wind on-shore, are expected to have the lowest “levelised” cost of electricity of all the evaluated technologies, while coal and gas prices will continue to rise dramatically.
Madam Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly with Ms Lawder’s comments yesterday that this is not just a decision that affects us today. No, it is not. These are decisions that will have a positive economic and environmental impact long into the future.The review of the commonwealth renewable energy target gives a worrying insight into the way in which the future is considered by the Liberal Party. The review recommends that the large renewable energy target, which deals with large-scale projects such as the solar farm at Royalla or the capital wind farm south-east of Lake George, be completely closed to new entrants. This recommendation, if implemented—a move which I fear those opposite would support—would be catastrophic for the Australian renewable energy industry. It would cost jobs, increase our carbon emissions and pass billions in profits to coal-fired generators. And while Ms Lawder may feel that the ACT government is looking for bragging rights through the development of our renewable energy industry, I can tell you that in the future the only bragging rights those from her party will have will be that they will have simultaneously contributed to the destruction of a budding industry and our environment, all for the benefit of large, carbon-based energy production company shareholders who may not even be Australian citizens.
I support both the federal and ACT renewable energy targets. Both are working towards the betterment of our society through regard for our environment and future generations to come. I sit on the side of 80 per cent of Canberrans who strongly support action on climate change and 93 per cent of Canberrans who support this government’s plans to demonstrate and promote new energy technologies.
I do not just support it here in the chamber, Madam Speaker; I support it in action. Currently, while we are sitting in here, my photovoltaic panels are generating 3.8 kilowatts of power while I am consuming almost zero. What is more, I support the work that Minister Corbell, as Minister for Capital Metro, is doing to move forward with the biggest single investment in public transport we have seen in the territory. An electric light rail system powered by renewably sourced electricity has a large potential to reduce the number of cars on our roads and therefore the amount of greenhouse gases produced by our community.
On an amenity note, I still have not been able to figure out why federal Treasurer Joe Hockey finds the capital wind farm so offensive. I certainly do not. I have been out there; I have visited the wind farm; I have stood alongside those turbines. I do not believe the general public finds these turbines offensive either.
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