Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4861 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for Fair Trading) (4.38): Mr Speaker, these Bills are designed to establish energy rating schemes for existing homes. I think we should distinguish between residential for sale and residential for rental in the ACT. I am having trouble speaking. Can the Chief Minister take over?

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (4.38): We are having trouble hearing. I am taking over. These two Bills, the Energy Efficiency Ratings (Sale of Premises) Bill 1997 and the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 1997, are very interesting Bills and are Bills that this side of the house thought very deeply about. Decisions have been taken that we will support, at least in principle, the Energy Efficiency Ratings (Sale of Premises) Bill 1997 but not the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill. The reason for that is actually quite clear. The Energy Efficiency Ratings (Sale of Premises) Bill, I think, is a very different piece of legislation and is the sort of legislation that is very much in line with the greenhouse targets that Mr Humphries announced in the last couple of weeks. What this means is that energy efficiency ratings need to be available on all sales of houses. The concern we have with that - and the reason it took us a bit of time to get to the stage of actually supporting it - is that currently, as I understand it, the ACT home energy rating scheme is quite complex; and it could end up being quite costly for people to get a home energy rating under the current rating scheme.

I understand, too, that the current rating scheme may not be as good as it could be, inasmuch as it does not include things such as horticulture, the trees, around a house. In other words, if somebody has been very clever and planted deciduous trees around their house that may provide shade in summer and may allow sun in winter, that is not taken into our current energy rating scheme; and, obviously, it should be, because it really does greatly affect the energy rating of a house. As much as we will be supporting the sale of premises Bill, we will be looking to make some amendment. We will be supporting the Bill but will not allow its enactment until a new energy rating scheme is agreed to. We would want such a statement to be a disallowable instrument and would want to be provided with, potentially, a business impact statement as well.

I think we have to make sure that when we do this we do not place at a disadvantage people who are trying to sell their houses, particularly as some of them will be in the older parts of Canberra. The owners may not be all that wealthy; we have to make sure we do not put impediments in their way. We have to have a system that is easy, fair and affordable. At the moment we know we do not have that in place. Taking that into account, we do believe that energy efficiency ratings on the sale of premises is appropriate. People should know what sort of energy rating their house has when they buy a house.

I have to say that rental tenancies are a different matter. Very few people sell their house every six months. With regard to rental properties, though, people can rent their house quite regularly. If we end up with a situation, at least as it is at the moment, where an energy efficiency rating is required on every single rental, it could become very administratively difficult and not all that useful at the end of the day. There may come a time when we have our energy efficiency rating system so efficient that it is simply so easy to do it that it will not be a problem going down this path. But at the moment it really could be a huge impediment, particularly as we know that a lot of the rental properties are not being rented out by huge landlords; they are being rented out by people who are fixed income superannuants and who might have one or two properties.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .