Page 3302 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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benefits, provide support and education for plumbing practitioners, and allow a reasonable transition period for suppliers and manufacturers of water heaters.
To date there has been little mention by the Greens of these facets in introducing this legislation. Therefore, it would be irresponsible for the government to support this bill without these issues having been addressed. The proposed commencement dates in the bill are 1 October 2009 for installations in new class 1 buildings, detached houses and townhouses, and 1 January 2010 for replacement water heaters in existing class 1 residences.
No regulatory impact analysis has been tabled with this bill. As I have said, it is not clear to me what level of consultation with stakeholders was undertaken in deciding on these dates; 1 October 2009 is six weeks away, Madam Assistant Speaker. This will leave little time for necessary legislative changes to be undertaken. For example, how would the Greens party ensure effective interaction between the proposed legislation, the Building Code of Australia and plumbing regulations? How would they communicate changes to consumers and industry?
The government is concerned about the social impact of these changes. Yes, much good environmental policy must involve pricing-in environmental externalities. Yes, that sometimes means that people pay more. But the smart, progressive policy approach must bring together fairness and good environmental outcomes. We need to ensure that the impact on low income earners is minimised and low income households that are already efficient users of energy must not be unfairly disadvantaged by this initiative.
Similarly, the expected environmental benefits have not been assessed against the current penetrations of each type of water heater, the expected uptake of solar, heat pump and gas units and the effectiveness of each type of technology in the ACT climate. The government understands the environmental imperative. That is why work is being done collaboratively between all jurisdictions on the training, product supply and technical issues that need to be addressed before commencement of legislation for water heater installations.
As part of COAG-agreed measures to increase energy efficiency requirements for new residential buildings to six stars or equivalent in the 2010 update of the Building Code of Australia, draft provisions for water heaters in new buildings were released in June for public comment and additional consultation on these measures will be concluded later this year. I would like to take this opportunity to reconfirm the ACT’s commitment to pursuing the introduction of higher energy performance standards for new houses and apartments through the national strategy for energy efficiency and the Building Code of Australia processes.
Whilst it is crucial to note that the COAG agreement recognised there are a number of transitional periods for legislative changes specific to each jurisdiction, which is why the outer date for implementation of the measures has been set at May 2011, this does not mean that the ACT is in any way required to delay the introduction of these measures to align with any other jurisdiction. It is also possible that the ACT can introduce more stringent criteria if it is appropriate.
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