Page 968 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 31 March 1993
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Mr Berry: No, the munched up stuff. You know what I mean.
MR STEVENSON: Yes, that is exactly what I mean. You said "newspapers". I said, "You probably mean telephone books".
Mr Berry: They use newspapers.
MR STEVENSON: I know that they use newspapers. Recently they were talking about munching up used telephone books. I thought it good to highlight that. I thought you would have wanted to highlight the telephone books. Perhaps Mr Connolly, if he had been in his seat, could have given you a quick nudge. Indeed, what about chopped up newspapers? It is called "cellulous fibre", which sounds a lot better than "chopped up newspapers", and it is very well treated with chemicals to make it fire retardant. It solves one of the major problems that you have in ceilings and that I alluded to earlier, and that is gaps caused by batts not fitting. It takes a long time for installers to fit the things properly. One of the advantages of any pumped in material is that you do not get any gaps; you do not get any spaces. In other words, you do the job properly. I think that is another benefit.
It is a benefit for people to be able to choose their own insulation. It is a benefit for them to be able to pay it off as they choose. It is a benefit for them to be able to do a room at a time. All in all, we should not make ceiling insulation compulsory. By all means, insulation of those areas that cannot be done after the house is built could well be compulsory. Once again, like Mr Connolly, it is not that I disagree with the principle of the Bill, but I disagree with the compulsion, particularly for ceilings.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (11.33): Madam Speaker, I will make some brief comments. I will not retrace the ground taken by others about the merits of compulsory wall insulation, as that has been well covered. I want briefly to mention some of the other activity that the Government is undertaking to make our homes more energy efficient. At the outset I might indicate that it has taken - - -
Mr Moore: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Mr Wood is suggesting that he is going to speak on irrelevancies. I hope that you will keep him to the topic at hand.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you for your advice, Mr Moore.
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I am disappointed to hear Mr Moore say that energy efficiency is an irrelevancy. I think we are all agreed on these measures. The pertinence of the debate may be a matter of some question, but I think that what I am saying is important. Before Mr Moore interrupted, I was going to indicate that I have been disappointed at the time it has taken to turn around some of our trends. The very first step I took on becoming Minister was to look at energy efficiency. I continue to do that now, getting on to two years after my appointment. I have to say that I am still disappointed at what I see when I drive around some of the new suburbs. It is a long process. It seems that we have this enormous battleship and it is taking some time to change that course.
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