Page 3107 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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it at a later stage, the cost would go up to $1,000 to $1,400 per home, depending on the nature of the house. It is very important to consider that winter heat loss in an uninsulated home is 35 to 40 per cent through the roof and 25 per cent through the walls.
When you think about it, once you have spent that initial amount of capital in building your home, you are then able to save, on an annual recurrent basis, a quite considerable amount of energy. As we take greater note of the need to reduce the amount of energy we are using per capita, the ACT should be taking a lead, as the Victorian Government has, in implementing those sorts of proposals in our own building codes. I would encourage the Minister for Urban Services to take that on board.
In another area, the Australian Model Code for Residential Development, second edition, dated November 1990 - an excellent document produced by the Model Code Task Force on the Green Street Joint Venture looks at a number of issues related to urban development and improvements to urban development. In informal discussions I have had in recent times with members of the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning, there is general support for the concepts outlined in this document.
Once again, I encourage the respective Ministers - both the Minister responsible for energy and the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning - to pick up the ball and run with it. It is governments who are able to influence the decision making. It is Ministers who can direct and encourage their bureaucrats to get on with the job of assisting in energy saving, particularly for those young families who are going to build their first home out in the suburbs. I have heard it said that there would be some increase in costs, but those costs would be recoverable very quickly. Once they are written into the initial cost of the house, they are very minor when you think about the long-term savings.
I also encourage the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning to consider encouraging the development of a code for homes establishing an energy efficiency rating, in much the same way as we see on appliances around the ACT these days. I am sure that would be of major assistance to people buying a home.
In taking this opportunity to talk about the building codes, I encourage both responsible Ministers to pick the ball up and run with it. They may well find that, in these days of increasing awareness of the environment, it is something the majority of the community will fully support. I commend these two documents to the respective Ministers because, as one says, there is no resistance to the implementation of the code right now for residential buildings.
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