Page 2283 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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Standing orders—suspension
Motion (by Mr Gentleman) agreed to, with the concurrence of an absolute majority:
That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Electricity Feed-in (Large-scale Renewable Energy Generation) Amendment Bill 2020 being called on and debated forthwith.
Electricity Feed-in (Large-scale Renewable Energy Generation) Amendment Bill 2020
Debate resumed.
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (5.12): I do not intend to delay the Assembly long on this legislation. It is obviously an embarrassment for this government, but I think that the workaround that this amendment bill outlines is testimony to the experience and the expertise we have in the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office and the culmination of, no doubt, a lot of sleepless nights of our public servants in the directorate who have worked extremely hard in the last few days to reach this outcome.
On this last sitting day of the Ninth Assembly, I think it is appropriate that we take time to remember the numerous people, including the legislative drafting team and public servants, working behind the scenes, over weekends and through the night at times, who make our work easier each sitting day and bring legal sense to policy whims and wishes of the government of the day.
We were assured in our urgent briefing that this bill is necessary to ensure that we do not jeopardise our reverse auction process to secure our ongoing commitment to 100 per cent renewable electricity. We were also assured that this is the only way to achieve this outcome, given the circumstances. On that basis, the Canberra Liberals support the bill.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (5.13), in reply: I thank Ms Lee for her comments and I particularly echo her remarks about the role of the public service. It would be fair to say that someone somewhere is feeling quite mortified about how this happened, but we are human and these things do happen.
I particularly appreciate the efforts of my directorate. When they came to tell me that there had been this error, they had also worked out a way to find a solution to it. I thank them for their quick work on that, their professionalism. I appreciate the support of the Canberra Liberals in helping us resolve this matter quickly and effectively. I look forward to being able to report to members on the outcomes of the reverse auctions quite shortly, once we have passed this legislation.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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