Canberra battle to play out in City Hall

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Brisbane City Council’s Labor Opposition has denied playing politics with a motion calling on Lord Mayor Campbell Newman to back Malcolm Turnbull’s position on the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Labor is trying to maximise the pressure on Cr Newman, after the LNP State Council on Sunday unanimously voted to reject Kevin Rudd’s ETS position, which has been backed by embattled Opposition Leader.

The Labor councillors’ motion is certain to be defeated on the numbers, with the LNP holding a significant majority.

Council Labor leader Shayne Sutton said the Lord Mayor was a “climate change sceptic” and rejected suggestions she was simply playing politics with the motion.

“I said when I was elected leader I wouldn’t hesitate in bringing forward ideas that I think were in the interests of the people of Brisbane,” she said.

Cr Sutton rejected claims she was using the Federal Liberal leadership turmoil to create problems for Cr Newman.

“We know that Cr Newman was a climate change sceptic,” she said.

“Now, Campbell Newman looks to ensure his climate credentials at every opportunity.”

Brisbane City Council has introduced a Two Million Trees carbon sink program, established a GreenSmart CitySmart planning scheme, set carbon reduction policies and made major increases to Brisbane’s public transport in recent years, including increasing the proportion of buses running on natural gas.

It is also a major sponsor of Brisbane’s Earth Hour program where all lights are turned off for one hour.

Last week, it identified Brisbane’s greenest suburbs based on the uptake of council rebates.

Environment Committee chairman Peter Matic said Cr Sutton’s motion was “ludicrous” and simply “political point scoring”.

He said Brisbane City Council bought 50 per cent of its electricity supplies from green power at a cost of $2.4 million and hoped to increase that to 100 per cent by the end of 2010.

Brisbane also spent $500,000 to $1 million a year for carbon offsets from Council’s bus fleet, he said.

“Cr Sutton and her whole team never backed this GreenHeart CitySmart program with all the rebates, like the solar hot water scheme which we bought in before the State Government,” Cr Matic said.

“This is the thing. We are pro-actively doing these things while Labor is simply criticising.”

The ALP will also move a second motion asking Cr Newman to survey residents in suburbs which will receive parking meters to make sure that more than 50 per cent of residents support the move.

This is council’s 2009 position on introducing new footpaths – a majority must support the move – and its current position on introducing traffic calming – where more than 60 per cent must support the move.

There was considerable community unrest in areas where new parking meters will be introduced.

TONY MOORE

Posted on December 1, 2009 · in Australasia

Tagged as: carbon offset • Carbon Reduction • ETS