Page 2302 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 August 2015
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(g) the Federal Government’s renewable energy target of 33 000 gigawatt hours of annual renewable energy production by 2020 will give certainty to the renewable energy sector and encourage jobs and economic growth in the sector; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to provide detail and report back to the Assembly in September 2015 on its progress:
(a) towards achieving its set target of 90% renewable energy generation by 2020; and
(b) towards achieving its set target of 65% renewable energy generation by 2017.”.
The federal government announced earlier this year a commitment to a renewable energy target of 33,000 gigawatt hours of annual renewable energy production. This gives some certainty to the renewable energy sector and encourages jobs and economic growth in the sector.
We have heard from some of the speakers so far this morning about the uncertainty about jobs in the sector because of federal government policy, but I would like to quote from an Australian Bureau of Statistics document from April of this year called Employment in renewable energy activities, Australia, 2013-14. This document says:
Local government policies also have the potential to influence employment in renewable energy activities.
It goes on to give some ACT examples. It says:
The net effect of the interaction of federal, state/territory and local government policies with regard to the renewable energy thus varies by location and over time.
The thrust of Ms Porter’s original motion this morning was to try and blame the federal government for everything that happens in the entire world. I do not think that is particularly fair. We in the ACT have a good commitment to renewable energy. That has been legislated to a target of 90 per cent renewable energy generation by 2020. The ACT government has announced that it expects to secure 65 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2017.
The thrust of my amendment today is to ask for the detail of those claims. It would be good to see the analysis behind them. We would like to see the detail and analysis behind these commitments that the ACT government has made. The amendment that has been circulated in my name today encapsulates much of Ms Porter’s original motion but simply asks for more detail about the analysis of progress. I am sure transparency of this information is something this government would support. We would like to see the detail and analysis of tracking towards achieving the set target of 90 per cent of renewable energy generation by 2020 and achieving the claimed 65 per cent renewable energy generation target by 2017.
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