Page 3500 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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of construction, particularly in relation to the insulation of walls and those parts of ceilings, such as cathedral ceilings, that cannot be insulated at a later date. The long-term energy saving, not only for the overall community but for the individual householder, is quite considerable when you think about it. On reflection, if I were building my house now, I would be installing insulation at the time of building. That would cost me in excess of $1,100 to $1,200 if I wanted to do it later on. They are the costs that have been provided by the industry.
I also note that the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, ACT Chapter, has prepared a discussion paper for one of its committees which comes out in support of this proposal. I think this community and this Government need to move towards that. What I am saying is that in terms of energy efficiency, be it electricity, natural gas, or wood-burning stoves, it is important for our homes and eventually our commercial buildings to be constructed in that way.
After all, Mr Acting Speaker, it is the bottom line of any budget that counts in this area - either the household budget or the business budget. I think you will find an increasing move towards this. I encourage the committee to look even further at this issue during their wider inquiry into energy use, of which, of course, this report is part.
MRS GRASSBY (11.02): I support the recommendations in general. After listening to Mr Jensen and some of the nonsense he talked about people buying houses because they had energy efficiency ratings, obviously he will never make a salesman. It is the women who decide on buying a house and it does not matter how energy efficient it is; if the woman does not like it she will not buy it. That is definitely it. What he should be looking at is bringing in rules or encouraging builders that houses have to be built facing the - - -
Mr Jensen: Oh, Ellnor, read my press releases.
MRS GRASSBY: I do not have to read your press releases. I have to listen to you; that is bad enough, without reading your press releases.
It is not acceptable that in a few short years Canberra has gone from being a very clean air city to one where we have to put up with an ugly and possibly unhealthy winter smoke haze. I do not believe that it causes a lot of the health problems; it has been proved in areas that this is not so. This has to do with a lot of other problems. But it is not healthy to have this sort of haze hanging over the city in wintertime and it is important that we do everything we can to clean up all this haze that we do get in areas. It does not happen all over Canberra; it happens only in parts of Canberra.
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