Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If we are really seeking to achieve our goals in regard to climate targets then I urge the Australian government to speed up the electrification of residential homes and businesses. We will be seeing the smart home of the future looking very different to the homes we have today. One of the big differences will be that gas could slowly disappear from the energy footprint. The general prediction for leading architects in renewable energy experts is that in the next decade smart homes and fully electrified homes will come into their own. They can offer us lower running costs and more comfort if we build homes that overall respect the climate we have in Australia. Why do we have a sea of black roofs in Western Sydney which heat up the homes and drive up the air-conditioning bills? It makes me shake my head. Why do we have shading pergolas and verandahs in older-style homes, and many modern homes with big windows facing west and acting like heat absorbers in summer?

The plan to electrify homes will rely on government programs to enable this direction. It must come with a review of the many wasteful energy practices we currently have in our planning and designing our homes. We have to have architects, builders, consumer groups and the government set a framework of fully electrified homes of the future and how they can look, with an overall lower energy footprint allowing for the maximum use of solar and batteries in people's homes. Gas hot-water tanks will become electric heat pumps. Heating and cooling will utilise electricity, but this electricity only helps in our climate goals if we use renewable energy in the generation of this electricity.

One of the ways to achieve a better energy outcome could be something along the lines of the European energy pass for homes, which I have seen in practice in Germany. As we all know, energy efficiency is a crucial aspect in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. The German energy pass is a document that provides information on the energy efficiency of buildings and can help homeowners and buyers make informed decisions about energy usage. The energy pass was introduced in Germany in 2008 and is now mandatory for all buildings that are put on the market for sale or rent. The energy pass provides information on the building's insulation, heating systems and other energy-related features, and gives the building a rating from A to G, where A represents the most energy-efficient buildings and G the least efficient. One of the main benefits of the energy pass is that it helps people make informed decisions about the energy efficiency of a building. For example, a buyer or renter can use the energy pass to compare the energy efficiency of different properties and make a decision based on the energy consumption and cost they are willing to incur. In addition, an energy pass can also be used to identify areas where a building can be made more energy efficient, helping to reduce energy consumption and costs and to make the building more environmentally friendly.

In conclusion, a future energy pass could be an important tool that provides information on the energy efficiency of buildings. By promoting energy-efficient buildings the energy pass helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy consumption and costs, and make our buildings more environmentally friendly. Let's find a way to cut fossil fuels out of our consumption chain, but let's transition it smartly and cost effectively.

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I speak on this motion, I just want to say that I caught the end of the member for Sturt's contribution on the member for Macarthur's excellent motion on skin cancer and I could not agree with him more. Men have to listen better to what their bodies are telling them. We all have to do better. But prevention is better than cure, and I would like to join with him in what he said about encouraging people to make sure they get the medical check-ups they need and look after themselves when they can. So thank you for that contribution. And thank you, Member for North Sydney, for this motion. I think it's an important conversation to have about how we can do all that we can to reduce emissions and be more energy efficient. Sometimes we focus on the big and really important debates and forget to talk about the other things that we can do, which aren't small but perhaps are more easily digested and should be thought about more than the big issue of how we transition out of fossil fuels into renewable energy. This is part of that.

Before I talk about the government's plan for better energy performance and add some extra thoughts of my own, I wanted to talk about one of the ways we are trying to do this in my local community and have had support from the Albanese government. Carrum Downs, in my electorate, is a great part of south-east Melbourne, but it has to be said that it's not one of the wealthiest parts. It's full of hardworking Australians who struggle with any change in their weekly, let alone daily, cost of living. I think that's partly why households across Carrum Downs have embraced renewable energy, with solar uptake at a higher rate than the Victorian average. More than one in five households across the entire city of Frankston, which is most of my electorate, have solar, but there is no doubt that, for most households, the high price of batteries means that families are still struggling to release the full potential of rooftop solar, putting more pressure on our electricity grid. With the current issues with arising power prices, it is more important than ever that we help households and families to play their part—which I know is what the member for North Sydney's motion was also partly about—doing what they can not just to reduce their emissions but also to reduce their power bills.

That's why I was thrilled when an election commitment was made to have a community battery in Carrum Downs and I was, it must be said, even more thrilled when the Minister for Climate Change and Energy announced that Carrum Downs would have one of the first 58 batteries. The tender is now open for applications to deliver that project, and I have before and do again urge people in my community, businesses, individuals and organisations to look at that tender process and to apply. It is something that is going to make a big difference to the people of Carrum Downs, and I'm very hopeful that, when this rolls out more broadly because the benefits are seen, it will also benefit other people across my electorate.

As I'm sure other government members have said when they have spoken on this motion, we are looking to develop a robust energy performance strategy. There is no doubt that, if we work together with businesses and communities but also all levels of government, local, state, and federal, we can build better homes, we can upgrade existing homes, we can bring better transparency to home energy performance, we can use more efficient appliances in our homes and our businesses and better equipment in our industries and we can find smart ways to manage demand to use less electricity and to use it when its cheapest and cleanest. We do want to empower people to do that, and the assistant minister, Senator McAllister, has announced that she will deliver a national energy performance strategy to bring coordination and leadership to demand-side reform. We have many of the solutions that we need now; we just need the goodwill of all levels of government to work together to deliver them and to make sure that we utilise the technology that will undoubtedly be developed every moment of every day into the future.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Goodwill amongst governments is one thing, but what we also need to make sure of in this motion, put forward by the member for North Sydney, is that housing can still be affordable. I very much appreciate that a better insulated house is going to reduce energy prices. That's understandable. I have no qualms, no questions there. But what we can't do is push the prices up because of ideology so that it makes new homes, or any homes for that matter, renovations or refurbishments unaffordable to the average buyer.

Stricter energy standards for new homes and those new laws and regulations put in place in New South Wales are seeing the cost of building a house in Wagga Wagga, in my home town, surge by up to $30,000. Yes, it may also lead to cheaper energy bills for residents. But when we've got higher prices for groceries, higher prices for energy costs, high costs for everything—for cost of living—why would we want to go and, just for the sake of ideology, push the price of the average house or the new homebuyer house up by $30,000?

The New South Wales government announced—this is going back to September last year—that all new homes and renovations that cost more than $50,000 will need to meet a seven-star energy rating from October this year. The minimum rating at the time that was announced was just 5.5 stars. Builders were told that part of this legislation meant they would need to start implementing better insulation, more double-glazed windows and smarter layouts to reach the new requirement. Some might argue, 'Well, that's all well and good,' but this is an industry that is fighting the good fight against higher prices for timber. Where do they source timber? Nobody in this country these days seems to want to cut down a tree. The price for just the metal brackets—if you can get those metal brackets, imported or otherwise—to go on frames has gone through the roof. The price has soared.

I regularly get texts from Wagga Wagga builder Wayne Carter. He described the change brought about by the state government as 'another blow for the construction industry', which is also facing, like every other industry, the question of where do they find labour? If they can find labour, how much do they have to pay those workers to keep them, to retain them in the sector? He said: 'It's been on the table for a while, and we've all been shuddering for it to be adopted. It means it's going to cost so much more to build a house, and that's a cost which the local people who want to own homes can ill afford.' I agree with Mr Carter.

I know from very, very personal experience—my wife, Catherine, worked in the industry for 17 years as a regional manager. Her company, Dennis Family Homes, a Melbourne based company, has shut up some of its regional operations because of the downturn in the industry. It's tough. And I know, despite the measures put in place by the member for Deakin when he was the Minister for Housing to make sure the industry was its best self during COVID, it was hard to find labour. It was hard for the industry—whether they were local small-time operators or whether they were a big housing company like Dennis or others—to make ends meet. But not only that, Labor comes to government and promises one million affordable social houses. I say good luck with that. I'll be watching with keen interest to see if that actually comes off.

Glenn Maslin, another local house builder in Wagga Wagga, says: 'The price of housing has increased by 15 per cent because of COVID, and now you're looking at another five per cent on top of that. The industry's going to suffer from all of these additional changes that seem to keep coming in.' So it's difficult. In this space, we need to think about those people. It's about balance.

I acknowledge the member for North Sydney and her good intent with this private member's bill, but we need to make sure that we can keep housing affordable for the person who wants to get into their new house or buy for their family.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is no stranger to extreme weather: heatwaves, droughts, floods and bushfires. Our community on the New South Wales South Coast has seen our fair share of it over the last few years. We know what it means to have reliable and efficient energy, or, should I say, we know what it means when that reliability fails because of climate change. In the wake of so many disasters, many local people are looking for new ways to climate-proof their homes.

As we move into the next phase of our recovery, we are seeing a new set of questions being asked. The South Coast community saw direct and indirect impacts from this string of disasters, so the question is broader than just asking where or what we build; it's about how we build. It's not just about protection from fire or protection from flood; it's also about resilience from power failures, protection against heat and smoke and protection against mould, mildew and water inundation. We have just witnessed a decade of neglect from the previous government, with the failure to make a real energy plan, the failure to take action on climate change and the failure to address our escalating housing crisis. So these questions should come as no surprise. Well, the Albanese government is not going to make the same mistakes they did. We have already enshrined our emissions target in law, taking real action to address our changing climate. We have already started the path for our Powering Australia plan.

During the election campaign, I was delighted to promise a community battery for the Maloneys Beach community, which will help people in this village reduce their energy cost and reduce their reliance on external power supplies, making them more resilient and better prepared for the future. In the wake of the bushfires, the Maloneys Beach Residents Association identified power and communications resilience as a key theme that local people wanted addressed. They did some research and found that, if they had a whole-of-community buy-in, it would be cheaper and more efficient to have a battery and backup power generators. We agreed, and now we have the Community Batteries for Household Solar program that can help communities, like Maloneys Beach, do just that. I'm really excited to see that come to fruition, but it is only the beginning.

More-efficient homes improve our energy consumption, reduce emissions, improve resilience and improve health. It is win-win, not just for communities but also for government, saving us all money in the long run. It is smart policy for individuals and for the country. With a government that will actually lead the way, we can have a sensible and constructive conversation about improving our energy performance to help us reduce emissions. Instead of hyperbole and hysteria about types of power, we can make Australia an energy powerhouse. This is a real and genuine way to reduce energy costs and drive our transition to emissions-efficient power—smarter, cheaper and cleaner.

We will waste no time. In fact, we have already begun. In October we announced that the Albanese government will deliver the National Energy Performance Strategy, our long-term plan to bring affordability, reliability and sustainability to our energy system. We want to empower people to improve the energy performance of their homes because we know the wide-ranging benefits that will have, not just in times of disaster but all year round. As part of our $15.2 million investment over four years to provide a framework for demand-side action, we released a consultation paper in November so that we can work with all stakeholders to develop a comprehensive energy performance plan, one that will take the pressure off prices, take the pressure off our climate, support efficient energy use and look at the suitability of our targets to drive better energy performance across the country.

What Australia has lacked over the last decade of the Liberal government is a sensible government holding sensible and constructive conversations with the experts about how we can tackle the challenges our energy sector is facing. We won't achieve anything with hysteria about so-called health impacts of windfarms. The science on that is settled. We won't achieve anything with distracting conversations about nuclear power. The science is settled on that as well.

What we must do and must do now is address our changing climate and do what we can. We must prepare our communities for the very real impacts of climate change, which are already happening. We simply have to support locals with cheaper, cleaner and more efficient energy and better energy performance. The Albanese government is committed to doing this without the hysteria, to just having sensible conversations with the experts and our communities.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.