2016-03-10
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — One of my most vivid memories of moving to Melbourne when I was a youngster was the cold and the wet. In fact Mum used to say that in Melbourne it would rain for six months of the year and then drip off the trees for another three. But yesterday I saw MPs coming in here bleary eyed after a stinking hot night. We did not just smash the record for a March warm night; in fact we exceeded the hottest night ever by a full 0.8 degrees. So unfortunately it seems that even the most dramatic models of global warming are starting to be exceeded, and that makes it an imperative that we stop Victoria's growth in emissions and in fact reduce them.
[Speech was interrupted.]
Mr BARBER — Thank you, President. That means that ministers in this place responsible for action on global warming — that is, in fact, every minister in this place — need to have the answers ready when questioned by members in this place. It is not enough to duck or disassemble or simply come back with an angry rant and no answer. It is not just the Greens but most Victorians who are now asking this government what its plan is to fight global warming.
Here is a challenge: take the subsidies that the government is currently offering to fossil fuels and offer them instead to measures that expand renewable energy. Stop putting investment dollars into projects that run off fossil fuels — and I am not just talking about energy but the transport system as well — and take that same investment in building us a zero-emissions system that will serve Victoria into the future for our energy, transport, land use, day-to-day living and economic needs.
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