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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 13 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 3819 ..
MR PRATT: I have a supplementary question. Minister, if you do receive a draft copy, when might you anticipate that, and will you be sharing the key themes that come out of the report with the members of this Assembly?
MR CORBELL: I think that is hypothetical, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: I think so, too.
Water efficiency
MS TUCKER: This question is for the Minister for Planning and was prompted by Mrs Dunne's private members bill last week, which introduced mandatory requirements to introduce various water saving measures in buildings, including water-efficient shower heads.
I had been thinking of doing something similar and was looking at what the government had done in this area. I came across an interesting item in the ACT greenhouse strategy, released by the former Liberal government at the beginning of 2000.
In the section on measures to reduce emissions in residential buildings, on page 16, two new measures were going to be introduced. One of these states:
... the installation of water efficient shower heads will be made mandatory for new dwellings and extensions to existing dwellings.
Given that this strategy was released almost three years ago, could you advise whether this measure has been implemented? If not, why not and when will it happen?
MR CORBELL: I am willing to check the details with Planning and Land Management, but I can advise Ms Tucker that the government is continuing with the program of the high-quality, sustainable design requirements introduced by my predecessor. I think that it is a very important initiative and one that we are seeking to build on.
A range of measures are required by HQSD to be put in place for improving the sustainability of new developments, along with getting better design outcomes.
Whether or not the installation of water saving shower heads and other features like that is mandatory or whether they are assessed as being a favourable indicator towards achieving a high-quality, sustainable design outcome is something I need to clarify. But I am happy to get back to the member on that.
MS TUCKER: The other measure that was going to be introduced was that the mandatory energy efficiency ratings for new houses would be increased. Given that we still have a four-star energy rating requirement, when houses could easily be rated 10-star, when are you going to increase the rating to at least five stars?
MR CORBELL
: One of the government's election commitments was to improve the energy rating system for new dwellings to allow for greater scope, at the top end of the scale, for buildings that were highly energy efficient but were currently only getting five
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