Page 2313 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011
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testing. Air leakage testing is very important. Australian buildings leak. They are not built as well as in Europe, and the plan-based EERs cannot, of course, deal with this. They assume the buildings are well-built. Thermal imaging would show up lack of insulation in the thermal bridging. I know that ACTPLA is now buying equipment, but it is only going to be used for auditing, not for ground truthing.
Paragraph (2)(f) is fairly straightforward. We need to improve so that we provide at least three cost-effective options for increased energy efficiency. In paragraph (2)(h) I advocate improved methodologies for data collection on built houses so that we have ground truthing between what the EER says and what is actually built. I will talk about more appropriate climatic data in my final speech. (Time expired.)
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (5.17): The government will not be supporting Ms Le Couteur’s motion today. It is not because we believe energy efficiency in buildings is not important, because we do. It is not because we are not taking steps to improve energy efficiency in buildings, because we are. And it is not because we do not accept the need to see energy efficiency in buildings continue to improve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because we do. It is a key part of the government’s response to greenhouse gas reduction targets.
But the reason we will not be supporting the motion today is that there is already extensive work being undertaken by a range of government agencies in relation to energy efficiency and building standards. Many of the issues raised by Ms Le Couteur in her very complex motion are already being done or have already been considered, and other parts of it are issues that are beyond the scope of the ACT government and relate to national measures and adoption of measures in other jurisdictions, which the government will argue is not relevant to the proceedings in this place.
In May 2010 the ACT was the first jurisdiction to fully implement the new energy efficiency standards in the building code of Australia. It should be noted that there are some states and territories where this is yet to be implemented. The ACT has also been the first jurisdiction to attempt to meaningfully and effectively apply energy efficiency standards to all building work, even those small alterations and additions that cannot reasonably meet the full performance level. Members should be aware that as well as being the first jurisdiction to introduce a mandatory disclosure scheme in March 2011, the ACT also became the first jurisdiction to commence a process of regulating energy assessors alongside other occupations in the construction industry.
The construction services branch of the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate has been allocated funding of over $4 million in the 2011-12 financial year for the full implementation of an auditing program for energy efficiency ratings of new building work and sale of premises, the purchase of equipment to enable alternative auditing methods and an extensive education program for industry and consumers.
One of the issues that Ms Le Couteur raises is the issue of air testing of dwellings. However, at a cost of approximately $800 to $1,000 per dwelling, the cost of
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