Page 849 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2005

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usage relates to demographics. Successful demand management will require cultural change, down to individual behavioural change. To this end, there should be monitoring and consideration of the implementation of public awareness and education strategies.

The ACT Council of Social Service and the Conservation Council of the South East Region in Canberra produced a joint position paper in 2003. The paper, Saving our water resources: an equitable and sustainable policy for the ACT, called for low-interest loans for the purchase of expensive water efficient appliances—for example, rainwater tanks and washing machines. This is a measure that the government will need to consider in the future.

The government should also consider measures to implement the use of water efficient appliances in public housing. For example, members of our community who are least able to afford new appliances would be unable to gain the financial benefits from water efficient equipment and appliances and so would reduce the community’s gains in water savings. We would welcome some consideration of the needs of disadvantaged members of our community so that our whole community benefits from reduced water use, taking the pressure off our strained water supply. Given the political will, this government could make us leaders by the adoption of a water efficient way of life in the ACT. Consequently, I am pleased to support this bill in principle, though I await with interest Ms Dunne’s amendment.

MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Arts, Heritage and Indigenous Affairs) (11.01), in reply: As members know, late last year I tabled the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Bill 2004. The bill is complementary mirror legislation to the commonwealth’s recently passed Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Act 2005. Very similar legislation is expected to be passed by other jurisdictions of Australia as part of a much-needed national water efficiency labelling and standards scheme.

The aim of water efficiency labelling is to encourage the uptake of water efficient products and appliances in domestic and commercial sectors, while maintaining individual choice and accounting for variations in water supply. Nationally, WELS is expected to conserve more than 87 billion litres of water per year, or the equivalent of around 43,000 Olympic swimming pools, by 2021. This level of water conservation will generate net savings to consumers of around $674 million per year and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 135 kilotons per annum in 2010. In the ACT alone, this scheme is expected to conserve 1.4 billion litres of water per year and deliver net savings of $11 million per year.

In an initiative to bring about reductions in water consumption, the ministerial Environment Protection and Heritage Council agreed, in May 2003, to the development of an implementation plan for a national water efficiency labelling scheme. In October 2003, the EPHC agreed that the preferred model would involve commonwealth legislation, with other jurisdictions adopting complementary mirror legislation. The EPHC resolved that jurisdictions should seek whole-of-government approval for the establishment of WELS.

This bill is the ACT component of the national scheme of legislation to give effect to WELS. It will implement a labelling of standards requirement on a range of water using


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