Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-10 Daily Xml

Contents

Carbon Neutral Cabinet

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:06): My first question is to the newly minted Minister for Climate Change. Given the reintroduction of the climate change portfolio and today's endorsement of a carbon neutral capital city, will we see the resurrection of the carbon neutral cabinet?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (17:07): My understanding is that the carbon neutral cabinet has not been put to bed. We are currently meeting that commitment. My understanding is that we met that commitment last year, and we will be considering that situation in the current budget as well. As I recall, the carbon neutral cabinet proposition was to make sure that the operations of ministerial offices, our travel, etc., were indeed carbon neutral, and I believe that Treasury purchases—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The honourable minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —on behalf of the whole government, and indeed of cabinet I suppose, are to have compliance certificates to actually do that process. My understanding is that this has not changed, but it is important to know that we will continue with that. We may well review it as a process that we enter into as we consider the report from the Premier's Climate Change Council.

We will need to make an assessment of whether, in fact, that is a useful way forward in offsetting the carbon footprint of cabinet. There may well be better ways of spending that money that will actually encourage investment in the state in advanced manufacturing issues around renewable energy. However, that is something we will consider as part of the report from the Climate Change Council when we come back later this year.