Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)   notes that:

(i)   in March 2005, at the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development (MCED) held in Seoul, representatives from 52 member and associate member countries of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) embraced the approach of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth (Green Growth),

(ii)   a green growth approach requires that environmental and ecological consideration must be integral to policy planning to ensure long-term economic and social viability, and economic growth should not be measured in gross domestic product alone but also in a set of eco-indicators,

(iii)   the MCED adopted a Regional Implementation Plan for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific 2006-2010 and the Seoul Initiative on Sustainable Economic Growth (Green Growth),

(iv)   UNESCAP’s member and associated countries have repeatedly confirmed their commitment to green growth since 2005 and have requested that the UNESCAP Secretariat continue to act as a catalyst for a conducive environment for green growth through developing the conceptual and analytical framework and by providing capacity building support to governments,

(v)   the green growth approach has become prominent in the region and has received highest political acceptance by heads of state of UNESCAP member states and, in February 2008, the Secretary-General of the United Nations noted that the world is on the cusp of ‘the age of green economics’, and

(vi)   Australia signed the regional implementation plan but has since failed to attend green growth policy dialogues and Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth forums; and

(b)   calls on the Government to:

(i)   immediately re-engage with UNESCAP’s initiatives to promote green growth principles in our region, and

(ii)   send delegates from the Department of the Treasury and the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts to future relevant meetings.

Question put.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The government would have been willing to support the motion of Senator Milne in relation to the Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development, had it not been limited to delegates from Treasury and the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. The government has a strong interest in promoting green growth in the Asia-Pacific region. An amendment was proposed that would have broadened the terms of the motion to take a whole-of-government approach. It would have given the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts a coordinating role while allowing the flexibility to involve a range of officials from relevant agencies. Senator Milne was not willing to allow such flexibility and was unwilling to amend her motion in this way. Instead, she preferred a more prescriptive approach, which the government considered impractical; hence our vote against such a motion.