Transcript of an address given March 4 to the Brisbane Institute by the Honourable Andrew McNamara, Queensland Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation.

I’d like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we gather this evening.

I want to thank the Board of the Brisbane Institute for the invitation to address this gathering.

Tonight I want to talk about capital S Sustainability.

By that I don’t mean the usual narrow environmental concept of sustainability in agricultural production and land use.

I mean the future of our society, our economy and our environment; the structure of our cities, their energy and water sources and demand profiles; the treatment of these sources of our wealth; the imminent peaking of world oil supplies; our use of finite resources like gas and coal; and the way we dispose of those resources when we’re finished with them.

I will begin by considering what sustainability means to me.

Ms NOLAN (Ipswich—ALP):

On Monday night in Ipswich two local engineers, Steve Posselt and Stuart McCarthy, in conjunction with the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Ipswich Green—an organisation of which I am a cofounder—ran an Ipswich leaders forum to outline to the community the serious challenge of sustainability.

Their timing could not have been better. Today the price of a barrel of West Texas crude oil passed through the $US110 mark. This is the highest price oil has ever reached, either in current or inflation adjusted terms.

Sydney and other cities should be preparing now for future oil shortages, Bruce Robinson, Convenor of ASPO-Australia, said today.   Peak Oil is the time when global oil production will start its unavoidable decline. This may be happening now, but a more likely date is in 2012 or so (+/- 5 years). Cities which prepare well in advance for oil shortages will have big advantages over those which ignore the risks till it is too late.  The Queensland Government is preparing an Oil Vulnerability Mitigation Strategy, one of the recommendations of its Taskforce which reported in April 2007.  Mr Robinson called on the Federal and NSW Governments to collaborate in assessing the risks oil shortages will bring. We must start serious steps to reduce our automobile dependence before the oil shocks hit.

Sydney Morning Herald , The Age and Courier Mail on-line articles resulting from the news conference held at Parliament House, Sydney, with Lee Rhiannon, Monday 17th March.

It has been a good week for peak oil in Australian politics. Andrew MacNamara (ASPO Australia Patron) launched a peak oil policy in Queensland, and Australian Democrat Sandra Kanck proposed a 'peak oil select committee' in the South Australian Legislative Council (although ASPO Australia fears for the motion's chance of success - write to your local member if you're in SA!).

Now, we have our first positive mention of peak oil by a Member of the House of Representatives, with a new MP shining a light for his new Federal Labor Government. With the Green Senators leading the campaign in the Senate, we now have at least positive indications from three of the four main parties.

Below is the relevant extract from Mike Kelly's speech. ASPO Australia welcomes this contribution to Federal Parliament.