RENEWABLE ENERGY (ELECTRICITY) AMENDMENT (FEED-IN-TARIFF) BILL 2008 - Report of Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee

Senator MILNE (Tasmania) (5:58 PM) -by leave-I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON ECONOMICS
(Senate-Wednesday, 22 October 2008)

Department of the Treasury

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said he was deeply distressed to learn that a breeding pair of the endangered Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagles had been killed at the Roaring Forties Woolnorth Bluff Point wind farm.

"There should be no more wind turbines built in Tasmania's prime raptor region until the problem is fixed," Senator Brown said.

"Some 17 of these magnificent and endangered Tasmanian Wedge-tailed eagles have been knocked out since 2002 and Australia cannot afford to lose any more," Senator Brown said.

Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, said today, "There can be no logical explanation for Ziggy Switkowski coming to Tasmania and proposing a nuclear reactor when Tasmania has enormous resources of and potential for renewable energy, from wind power, ocean power and much more.

"Ziggy must be suffering from media deficit disorder since the Howard Government lost and the nuclear agenda collapsed.

"Nobody in Tasmania will take him seriously.

This is a Bill to amend the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 to establish a national feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme.
Climate change is a huge and urgent challenge to Australia and the world. With greater impacts and new science arriving almost daily, the task we face, to build a 'post-carbon' economy, is only getting more urgent.
We need to pull out all stops to build new, zero emission energy and transport infrastructure to replace the polluting coal and oil that we rely on today.

Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan's first Budget looks even worse for climate change in the cold light of day, Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, said today.

Senator Milne said, "The urgency of climate change action is building rapidly. We have gigawatts of renewable energy projects, from solar thermal to wind, waiting to be rolled out. We have car manufacturing plants ready to be re-tooled and millions of homes crying out for insulation. We could be well on our way to a post-carbon Australia by the next election if we decided to make that change.

Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, today welcomed Greenpeace International's comprehensive report into carbon capture and storage, and said that the report confirms our view that we must act now to reduce emissions fast with the renewable energy and efficiency technologies which do exist.

Senator Milne said "We cannot further delay action on climate change, or continue to divert valuable budget dollars, because a hypothetical alternative future solution might allow us to keep using coal.

The best way to increase Tasmania's zero emissions generating capacity would be to introduce a comprehensive feed-in law for renewable energy, Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, said today.

Senator Milne said "Feed-in laws are regarded around the world as the most sophisticated and effective mechanism to boost renewable energy generation. They give specifically targeted support to a range of renewable energy technologies, directly encouraging people to install them by guaranteeing a fair price for the energy generated.

This morning, I joined Bob Brown and our ACT Senate candidate, Kerrie Tucker, down at the ANU's Big Dish to launch a new policy that we are quite excited about - Farming Renewable Energy.