Page 3799 - Week 14 - Thursday, 10 December 1992
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The report seems to me to be saying, "If you want to build a new house in the ACT you must have those sorts of things built into your home to begin with". I do not see any shaking of heads, so I assume that that is what it is saying. It does carry real questions about costs, and I am disappointed to see that there are no costings anywhere as to what that might mean for the average cost of a new home. I ask the Government to do some work, and present to the Assembly some idea of what the cost will be. It may be that we will say, having looked at those figures, that they are reasonable costs to impose on a new home builder; but I would like to know what they are before I commit myself to supporting that recommendation. (Extension of time granted)
It has been put to me by people in the insulation industry that it is entirely reasonable to require insulation of walls because walls are very difficult to insulate once the house has been built. But requiring ceiling insulation at the incipiency of a new house is a cost which is often very high to a new home owner who is struggling to get the money together for his or her deposit, struggling to make ends meet. It could have the effect of pushing back by some months the time at which a person gets a new home.
Ms Ellis: Lower fuel bills straightaway.
MR HUMPHRIES: Lower fuel bills come later, Ms Ellis. If they are building the house, it might be a year, two years or three years before they repay that initial up-front cost, and that is the problem. I am sympathetic to the concept we are trying to get here. We are trying to help people to pay for these things and to reduce their electricity bills, because that is in their interests and it is in our interests as consumers and as people who have to live and pass on to our children a world that can power the sorts of things we power in this time. There are factors here that have to be taken into account, and it seems to me that some of those factors are not fully amplified in this report. I would support, for example, a mandatory requirement for insulation of walls in new homes at the present time, I think; but I am not sure that I could support insulation of ceilings. Ceilings can easily be insulated at a later point, and, if people choose to save money by insulating at that later point, perhaps that ought to be their business, not the business of government.
To conclude, I think this report raises a great many valuable issues. It perhaps does not take the issues as far as they should be taken, and that may mean that there is another body to whom the ball should now be passed. It seems to me that there is a very heavy onus presently on the Government to work out where it sits with these recommendations. I do not see the Minister in the chamber; I do not know whether he is going to respond to these recommendations today. I assume that he will take some time to do so, and I think, with respect, he needs that time, because the recommendations are complex and impose very serious changes on the structure of the ACT's energy supply.
Mr Berry: So, he should go slow on this one? Go slow or go quick?
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, it is not all black and white. Sometimes you have to do things quickly and sometimes slowly, and this is a matter where the Government has to consider the case very carefully before it proceeds. If you want advice from the Liberal Party on what to do, you will get it, and you are getting it now. You should not be rushing into anything in this case. I cannot say the same for all the other actions we see from this Government, but in this case the answer is: Be careful.
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