Climate Change Greenhouse Reduction Bill - October 2010

MR BARR: (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (12.10): 

I am very pleased to speak in support of the Climate Change Greenhouse Reduction Bill 2010. 

As members would be aware, in many contributions in this place, and most recently in the 2010 statement of planning intent, I have been on the record as saying "climate change changes everything and the implications of climate change for planning in Canberra are enormous."

I have observed in debates that the question actually of whether there is a problem has been resolved, and the debate now should be about how to create solutions. 

It is critical to note here that there is a confluence of issues that amount to a challenge the size and complexity of which I do not think has ever been phased before by humanity. 

We must remember that this is not just a problem for today; climate change has dimensions which extend well beyond the current generation.

It is not just climate change; there is peak oil, population growth, demographic change, environmental degradation, water and food security, waste management, housing affordability, cost of infrastructure and services, pollution, perhaps most importantly, social equity. 

All of these have a human dimension as well as an urban dimension. For the first time in human history, more than 50 per cent of the global population lives within urban areas, and it is projected that by the middle of this century, this figure could reach as high as 70 per cent. We know urban areas produce as much as 70 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. We know that urban settlement is a rampant consumer of resources and a producer of waste.

Canberra cannot sit in splendid isolation from these events. We need to accept now that the future will be different. We should be looking forward to new solutions and not casting back a century for answers to Canberra’s challenges.

Walter Burley Griffin could never have foreseen the changes in lifestyles that technology has delivered and that climate change will require. We should not try and reinterpret his ideal city of the future.

None of this is intended to sound alarmist, but we have to put our present and future actions into perspective and into context. In respect of the planning of our city, this will be central to the local, national and international response by governments and civil society. The importance of city planning has been recognised by the United Nations, by the Commonwealth Heads of Government, by COAG, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a host of research, academic and professional institutions.

With greenhouse gas emissions in the ACT being predominantly emitted by the built environment, including transport, the government is taking clear steps now to address how we plan for the next century of development. 

For example, we are driving change to planning policy through the sustainable futures program to support the government’s climate change strategy, weathering the change. This includes examining the resilience of the pattern of spatial development in Canberra, scenario planning for different spatial distributions and greater analysis of biodiversity impacts.

It also includes examining the location for increased urban densities and how we can best optimise established infrastructure and services, which includes master plans for specific locations. We are recalibrating the Canberra spatial plan to ensure that it is responsive to and can deliver on the key principles that are contained within it.

The spatial plan can affect both 62 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by building energy and assist in reducing the 23 per cent caused by transport. 

We are consulting with industry, professional associations and the community to strengthen solar access rules in the territory plan. This work is currently going on through the code review reference group that I established to consider draft territory plan variations 301 and 303.

The Government is also working with the community and industry to implement carbon targets for entire estates, and we are implementing more comprehensive measures to increase residential densities within town and group centres to meet the needs of a community that will be demographically different to what it is now. This includes higher density along transport corridors and areas that have been bypassed by previous development or where the development has passed its economic life cycle.

The Government is developing a world’s best practice sustainable development project at East Lake as well as looking to introduce more sustainable development practice in the planning for the Molonglo Valley. 

We are establishing new approaches to water reuse in the Molonglo Valley development and in the remaining suburbs of Gungahlin. 

We are continuing to drive energy efficiency in new and existing homes by phasing out electric storage hot water heaters for class 1 and 2 buildings. This is consistent with the COAG national strategy on energy efficiency. 

We are participating in think tank projects on the design of sustainable cities and sustainable communities.

As Canberra’s population grows and the demand for new and affordable housing is driven by demographic and market forces, the government will continue to plan new suburbs in accordance with the Canberra spatial plan. 

At the same time, we continue to plan to meet the goal of the spatial plan, to achieve 50 per cent of all new development in Canberra by 2030 within 7 and a half kilometres of the city centre. 

Along with providing new growth in appropriate areas, the government has continued to plan for residential intensification in existing areas of the city to ensure a more compact and, most importantly, a more affordable city.

Despite the often ill-informed commentary on infill development, which is responding to the challenges we face, the reality is that the vast majority of Canberra as we know it - probably as much as 80 per cent of this city - will remain unchanged in character.

It is interesting to read about the way other cities are planning for their population growth while minimising their environmental footprint. One example is consideration of Melbourne’s planning and the Transforming Australian Cities document. This was produced by the Victorian government and anticipates the growth of Melbourne.

It states that cities should be aiming to maximise development along new and future road and public transport corridors. The report also shows that high density does not have to mean high rise. Research those that building heights of three to eight storeys are actually more sustainable than their higher counterparts, as they reduce the need for excessive, embedded and operating energy. 

In fact, the study argues that of all of Melbourne’s project population growth of around 1.9 million people could in fact be accommodated in buildings of no more than three to eight storeys along its public transport corridors.

The relationship of sensitively designed buildings to public space is also critical, and there is a challenge for all of us here, most particularly, though, our design professionals, and the development industry. 

Meanwhile, the balance of developed and developing suburbs needs to be planned and designed to minimise energy and water use, to reduce waste and to be more efficient in the use of land and materials. This built form not only needs to be environmentally sustainable, but also to contribute to the economic viability of a city, its livability and, critically, its social inclusiveness.

My vision for Canberra in 2030 is a more progressive, more inclusive and more vibrant city, a city that offers even better services, entertainment, hospitality and amenities for a growing local and regional community.

Over the next 20 years, Canberra’s population will grow by around 80,000 people. That is simply the excess of births over deaths. 

We will need about 50,000 more homes in Canberra to keep up, and in the context of climate change, this means a significant change to the way we have traditionally done things.

This includes appropriately designed higher density and targeted locations. And whilst we will continue to be a capital city set amongst the bush, I do not think anyone would say that Canberra in 50 years will be anything like the city it was in the 1950s.

I have just talked at some length about the sustainability challenge we face from the planning perspective. 

Cities are full of people and exist for their benefit, and as such it is people who will continue to make the decisions that will shape the future of Canberra as a sustainable and vibrant city, and as such education has a vital role to play.

Indeed the planners, and even the ACT Chief Minister of 2030, are probably right now in their latter years of high school or college. 

Environmental sustainability is something that ACT students learn every day from their teachers, and it is something we demonstrate to them every day in ACT schools by embedding it into our refurbishments and new school programs.

In fact we are investing over $20 million to make our schools carbon neutral by 2017, we are ensuring that new schools are designed to improve their energy efficiency and to reduce water consumption. 

The new Gungahlin College, the new P to 10 School at Kambah and the Harrison Secondary School are currently under construction, all are designed to achieve five star Green Star ratings from the Green Building Council of Australia.

A number of measures are included in the designs for the three schools, including the installation of Smart Meters, the use of fittings and materials that have low volatile organic compound emissions, ensuring that there is enough secure and covered bicycle storage, photovoltaic generation systems to reduce the schools’ dependence on mains power, and a range of other energy consumption reduction measures throughout the buildings.

In addition, Gungahlin College has an underground thermal labyrinth to ventilate the college’s buildings. This labyrinth channels cooler air through the buildings in summer and warmer air in winter, increasing student and teacher comfort and most importantly, saving energy. The college will also have a water retention pond and underground water tanks to collect rainwater and flush toilets for irrigation. The P -10 School at Kambah also has a range of similar measures.

Not surprisingly it’s the Federal Labor government that has invested more in Australian schools than any other since Federation, and through the Building the Education revolution, a high emphasis was placed on environmentally sustainable design features.

The new Environment Centre at Gold Creek School has been designed to achieve a six star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It will generate more energy than it requires, and will feed that energy back into the electricity distribution network.

BER projects at a number of other schools include thermal labyrinths to ventilate their new libraries and assist with heating and cooling. Other school BER projects include a range of design features such as natural light and energy efficient lighting, water efficient tapware and toilets, rainwater tanks and external shading to improve passive cooling.

All of this, shows that it can be small and practical steps, school by school, suburb by suburb, in this city that will make a difference. 

The ACT government has allocated $2 million to install solar generation systems at ACT public schools. I was very pleased to be able to open the pilot project at Evatt Primary School and to see Kingsford Smith School solar systems installed, in addition to those already in place at Theodore and Gordon Primary Schools, under the BER.

Further solar systems will be installed in conjunction with the Federal Government’s National Solar Schools Program We also have a $2 million program to install rainwater tanks in all ACT public schools. Department of Education and Training has recruited a landscape architect who is preparing landscape designs for all ACT public schools over the next 12 to 18 months.

These designs will help improve the image and amenity of our schools, but they will also, importantly, contribute to drought-proofing the landscapes, improving passive cooling, capturing water and integrating indoor and outdoor spaces and learning environments for students.

These are all important local, practical measures. 

In conclusion there is no avoiding the fact that climate change changes everything, that we will see this in the built form and the lifestyle of those who live in Canberra in coming decades. 

In my view, it presents challenges, changes, but most importantly, opportunities in every part of life in this city.

The future will be based on market-based solutions. We need to be upfront about pricing externalities. As an economic rationalist (and the only one in the village as I’m often reminded), I think there are compelling rational, economic reasons for supporting this legislation.

It is about putting in place market-based solutions. It is about transforming this city and this economy. 

It might be that Australia’s largest regional subsidy program, the city of Canberra, could finally come of age economically. 

We might finally be able to see a city where employment is more than just the public sector, where new industries and new opportunities will emerge. 

This is an important reform for our city.  I am pleased to support this legislation.