Page 3623 - Week 08 - Thursday, 19 August 2010
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Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Construction Occupations Legislation Amendment Bill 2010
Debate resumed from 1 July 2010, on motion by Mr Barr:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.10): I rise to speak on the Construction Occupations Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. The Canberra Liberals will support this bill. I note that the intention of this bill is to regulate, assess and supervise energy efficiency ratings for buildings. These EERs are those which are required under the residential sales act to be advertised when a home is advertised for sale, and those which are required by the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 when leasing or advertising a rental property. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the former Liberal government which in 1998 became the first government in any jurisdiction in the world to mandate the disclosure of energy efficiency.
The Liberal government was also one of the first jurisdictions to endorse the Kyoto protocol. This was a government which really was way ahead of its time when it came to taking strong and sensible action on the environment.
Although there are over 200 registered energy efficiency assessors in the ACT who are registered with ACTPLA, they are not licensed in any way. This bill provides for those energy efficiency assessors to become licensed under the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004. I note that according to the explanatory statement, the framework for licensing builders, electricians and plumbers that exists under the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act is also suitable for energy efficiency assessors and that the bill will utilise this existing framework under COLA and the Building Act 2004 to provide suitable educative and disciplinary measures for assessors.
Importantly, it will also provide a complaint mechanism for consumers. The bill will only require individual assessors to hold a licence and these licences will only be prescribed under the bill for residential schemes. The Canberra Liberals have consulted widely and industry have not raised any serious concerns about the bill.
However, it is now incumbent upon the government to use these regulations wisely and to ensure that the operations that are not up to scratch currently are brought up to standard within a reasonable time frame. Ultimately, we are passing a new law today which will result in a new regulatory burden on a skill that we would like to encourage.
This is a green skill, one which has become, thanks to the former Liberal government, an important and necessary skill required by building and real estate industries in the
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