Hansard debates

                          SUSTAINABILITY VICTORIA BILL
                                 Second reading

  Mr THWAITES (Minister for Environment) -- I move:
  That this bill be now read a second time.
Becoming  more  environmentally  sustainable  is  one of the greatest challenges
facing Victorians.
It is not just a challenge for us, but for all the peoples of the world.

International agreements  --  most notably  the  Kyoto protocol  to  the  United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -- have been debated and ratified
by national governments and are gradually -- perhaps too gradually -- leading to
more environmentally sustainable practices around the globe.
State governments share a responsibility to act as well.
This  bill  sets  out  to  further  that  aim by  establishing  a  new  body  --
Sustainability  Victoria -- which will tackle the sustainability  challenge in a
more holistic, accessible and efficient way.
In addition  to adopting the  previous functions of Sustainable Energy Authority
Victoria and EcoRecycle, 

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Sustainability  Victoria  will  play  a  role  in  sustaining  Victoria's  water
resources in relation to households and businesses.
The challenge
The evidence  of  the world's leading  scientific agencies, including  NASA, the
Hadley Centre and the  British Met Office, about  the dangers of environmentally
unsustainable  behaviour  to  our  planet  and  future  standard  of  living  is
compelling.
They tell us that in just the past decade, carbon dioxide levels in the  world's
atmosphere have risen by as much as they did during the previous 10 000 years.

Scientists,  including  Australia's  former  Chief Scientist,  Robin  Batterham,
advise that we need to  reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 50 per cent by
2050 to avoid  dangerous climate  change --  that is,  greater than  a 2  degree
Celsius increase.
World climate records already reveal that the five hottest planetary years  ever
recorded have occurred since 1998.
Global warming is a reality. It is happening now. And Victorians are  not immune
from its effects.
In a  number of landmark studies, our very own CSIRO has reported on the current
and likely future impacts of global warming on Victoria.

For  instance, it predicts that  unless global warming is slowed, Melbourne will
lose water due to less rainfall, reduced river flows and higher temperatures.
The CSIRO's 'mid-range' scenarios project an 8 per cent loss of average flows by
2020,  rising  to  a  loss  of 20  per cent  by 2050.  Combined with  population
increases, this will place enormous pressure on our future water resources.
For too long we have treated the environment as an inexhaustible bounty.
We have  consumed  natural  resources  at  a faster rate than they can naturally
replenish.
We have considered the needs of today, but not the rights of future generations.

In Victoria,  like many places around the  world, we  are only  now feeling  the
consequences of many of these past mistakes.
For example --
  Since European settlement began in Victoria in the  1830s approximately 65 per
  cent  of our native vegetation has been cleared, degrading the quality of some
  of our land and waterways.
  Inappropriate land-use  has  led  to  around 670 000 hectares of land being at
  high risk  of becoming  saline and  it is estimated that this could more  than
  double by 2050.
  Forty-four per cent of our native plants and 30 per cent of our native animals
  are either extinct or threatened.

  We are creating 8  million  tonnes of waste a  year,  half of which goes  into
  landfill.
All up, our ecological footprint is huge. If everyone on the planet used as many
of the world's  resources  as  Victorians, we would need four planets to provide
for us.
The enormity of  our environmental footprint is  a measure of our responsibility
to change.
Facts like these necessitate action.
The vision

In response  to the  growing public awareness of this issue, in April 2005,  the
government  released a  comprehensive environmental sustainability framework for
Victoria, accompanied by a ministerial statement to the Parliament.
The  framework and  statement build  on a  long and proud history in Victoria of
protecting  the  environment  and  moving  towards   sustainability.  Victoria's
achievements   began  with  the  establishment  of  the  Environment  Protection
Authority, which  since  1970 has  acted  as an environmental  guardian  and has
worked in partnership  with business and  the  community to improve  sustainable
practices -- in recent times through establishing sustainability covenants.
The  framework and the statement set out the challenges posed by environmentally
unsustainable behaviour and the many environmental, social and economic benefits
that will flow from adopting more sustainable practices.

They also set out a series of objectives against  which  Victorians  can measure
their progress  and establish a series of principles for  government, businesses
and the community generally to guide future decision making.

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The framework  and the statement had one simple, important message: we must make
sustainability  a part  of everything  we do  if we  are to maximise  our future
economic growth,  maintain our quality of life and protect  our unique Victorian
environment.
More precisely the framework and statement set out three crucial tasks:
        1. we must continue maintaining and restoring our natural assets;
        2. we must use our resources more efficiently; and
        3. we must reduce our environmental impacts.
Victorians have already made great progress.

Our state now has a world-leading environmental reform agenda.
We are  now starting  to use  our natural resources more sensibly and repair the
damage we have caused to our natural assets.
  We have launched the Victorian greenhouse strategy;
  we have  released  a  comprehensive  water  policy  -- Our Water Our Future --
  including 110  new  initiatives for water  conservation  and $320  million  to
  ensure clean and sustainable water supplies for Victoria. Melbourne households
  now use an average of 19 per cent less water than in the 1990s;
  we have  achieved an historic agreement to boost the flow of  the Snowy  River
  from 6 to 28 per cent;

  fifty per cent of waste  is  now  recycled,  and diverted away from landfills,
  compared  to 26 per cent 10 years ago. Victoria currently  leads the  world in
  the recycling of newspapers;
  we have established 13 marine national parks and 11 marine sanctuaries;
  we  have adopted Melbourne  2030  -- a  30-year  plan  to protect  Melbourne's
  liveability and manage growth; and
  we have set a renewable energy target of 10 per cent by 2010.
Gratifying though  those results are, this  progress must be maintained  and its
pace accelerated.

More  needs  to  be  done  to  change  behaviour  and make  Victoria  even  more
environmentally sustainable.
More ambitious targets have to  be met, which are spelt out in the environmental
sustainability framework --  including targets for  reducing Victoria's  climate
impact.
States  like California in the United States of America have made commitments to
dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As good international citizens, it
is our duty to do likewise.

This is the reason why in  the ministerial statement accompanying the framework,
the government announced its intention to establish a new body -- Sustainability
Victoria,  which merges and replaces  two existing state  government agencies --
Sustainable  Energy Authority Victoria, which was established by the Sustainable
Energy Authority Victoria Act 1990, and EcoRecycle, which was established by the
Environment  Protection (Amendment)  Act  1996. The  new  body  will  also  have
responsibility  for  improving  Victoria's  sustainable approach to water use in
relation to households and businesses.
The  new  body is based on the understanding that environmental choices  do  not
happen in isolation.
The things that save energy are often the  same things  that save water, recycle
products and cut pollution.

Just as major businesses that take recycling seriously tend not to have separate
bodies looking at  reducing energy use, saving water and recycling,  so Victoria
will now have a single body to advise and assist Victorians to live sustainably.
Sustainability  Victoria  will  lead  a  more  holistic  approach  to  achieving
sustainability.
It will work with business and communities to  put in  place the programs needed
to take a quantum leap forward  in the sustainable management of our natural and
built environment.
It will be more convenient for business and the public to access by setting up a
one-stop shop for sustainability advice and assistance.

And  it  will deliver  these  services in a  more  cost-efficient and  effective
manner.
In this way,  it  will achieve  the  aims  of the  environmental  sustainability
framework in integrating environmental sustainability into our everyday lives.

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The bill
I now turn to the particulars of the bill.
Purpose
The purpose of the bill is to establish Sustainability  Victoria and provide for
it to be the successor in law of the Sustainable Energy  Authority Victoria  and
EcoRecycle Victoria.
It amends  the Environment Protection Act 1970 to repeal the provisions relating
to EcoRecycle Victoria  and gives its  functions  and powers  to  Sustainability
Victoria.
It repeals the Sustainable Energy Authority Victoria Act 1990.

And also consequentially amends certain other acts.
Principles
The bill sets out a number of  principles to guide the decisions  and actions of
the new body:
  Its decision-making processes should  effectively integrate both long-term and
  short-term  economic, environmental,  social and equity  considerations. It is
  expected   that   this   principle   will   take   into   account  issues   of
  intergenerational equity.
  If there are threats of serious or irreversible  environmental damage, lack of
  full  scientific  certainty  should not  be  used as a  reason  for postponing
  measures to prevent environmental degradation.

  This important guiding principle  is to prevent  the  outcome desired by  many
  global  warming sceptics, who use  the claim that our  scientific knowledge of
  the causes of global warming is incomplete to argue that we cannot  set limits
  to  emissions  of  greenhouse  gases.  The  basis  of the  bill  is  that  the
  overwhelming majority of the world's scientific experts accept the reality and
  danger  of global warming and that in this case, the principle of safety first
  demands that we act to reduce emissions.
  Sustainability Victoria needs to consider the global impact of its actions and
  policies.
  It assumes the  development of a strong, growing and diversified  economy will
  enhance, not  hinder, environmental protection.  And  it assumes the  need for
  Victoria to maintain international competitiveness in an environmentally sound
  manner.

  These   two  principles   are   based  on  the   understanding  that  a   more
  environmentally sustainable economy  will  be  a  long-term source of economic
  growth and employment opportunities for Victoria. Acting  sustainably  is good
  for the economy.
  Sustainability  Victoria  will recognise the need to adopt cost-effective  and
  flexible policy instruments  such as improved valuation, pricing and incentive
  mechanisms.  This principle  recognises  that businesses  and individuals must
  accept responsibility  for the environmentally  damaging by-products of  their
  goods  and  services by including  the full costs  of  pollution, disposal and
  recycling into  their pricing arrangements.  Environmental bodies  around  the
  world  today   recognise  this   process   --   'internalising   environmental
  externalities'  --  as crucial  to  reducing emissions and  waste and boosting
  sustainability.

  And   finally,  Sustainability  Victoria  will  recognise  the  importance  of
  facilitating  community  involvement  in  decisions and actions on issues that
  affect the community. This recognises that sustainability requires significant
  cultural change in  the community. In other words, it requires  the acceptance
  of the need to be sustainable and it requires changes in everyday behaviour --
  whether that be cutting down on car usage, using less water in showers and the
  garden, phasing out the use of plastic bags or other daily actions.
Objective
Clause 6 of the  bill defines the objective of Sustainability Victoria, which is
to facilitate and promote environmental sustainability in the use of resources.

At this point it is relevant to state  that  the  definition of 'sustainability'
under  which  the  new  body  will  operate comes from the World  Commission  on
Environment and Development (the Brundtland commission)  in its 1987  report Our
Common Future, which defined sustainability as:
  Development  that meets  the  needs of the  present  without compromising  the
  ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Functions
Clause 7 of the bill sets out the functions of Sustainability Victoria.
The functions are broader than the functions of the Sustainable Energy Authority
Victoria and EcoRecycle Victoria because Sustainability Victoria will take on an
expanded role.

Sustainability  Victoria will assist  all Victorians to  integrate environmental
sustainability into 

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their everyday lives;  accelerate progress towards  sustainability in businesses
and households;  and  provide advice on  new  technologies and  areas  of market
failure.
For example, its functions include:
  facilitating the implementation of environmentally sustainable measures in all
  sectors of the Victorian economy,  including  local  government,  business and
  households; and
  encouraging  and   promoting  the  development  and  use   of  environmentally
  sustainable  practices,  markets,  technologies   and   industries,  including
  resource efficiency, energy efficiency, renewable energy and water.
Powers

Clause  8 of the bill sets  out the powers of Sustainability Victoria. It may do
all  things  necessary or  convenient  to carry  out  its  functions,  including
obtaining  and   holding  intellectual  property   rights,  including   patents,
copyrights, trademarks and registered designs.
Annual business plan
Clause 19 sets out requirements for Sustainability Victoria to produce an annual
business plan, including its budget, priorities and other matters set out in the
bill.
Savings and transitional provisions

And finally, clauses  20 to 25 of the  bill set out the savings and transitional
provisions  to  make  Sustainability  Victoria  the  successor  in  law  to  the
Sustainable Energy Authority Victoria and EcoRecycle.
This includes:
  details of the  transference of  responsibility  for regulations,  subordinate
  instruments, other documents and staff from the old bodies to the new one;
  sundry amendments  to the Environment Protection Act 1970 and  the Electricity
  Act 2000; and
  the repeal of the Sustainable Energy Authority Victoria Act 1990.
Conclusion

In conclusion, the establishment of Sustainability Victoria, as proposed in this
bill, will make a significant contribution to the creation of a more sustainable
Victoria and contribute to global sustainability.
Creating the conditions for  a  sustainable society here in Victoria will not be
easy.  The goal  will  not  be  reached  overnight.  But  we  must head  in this
direction. Like  all long journeys it starts with a small step  -- changing  our
culture and behaviour to become more environmentally sustainable. Sustainability
Victoria will help lead us to this goal.
I commend the bill to the house.
Debate adjourned on motion of Mr HONEYWOOD (Warrandyte).
Debate adjourned until Thursday, 25 August.