Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I hope that the Greens amendments are now before senators, but in view of the changed arrangements I apologise that they have been circulated at a late stage. I move Greens amendments (1) to (4):

(1)    Page 26 (after line 20), after Part 2, insert:

        (1)    If a constitutional corporation owns a building or an area of a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 2,000 square metres in area;

the corporation must provide to the Secretary by 31 January in each year the information listed in subsection (2) in relation to the preceding calendar year, for inclusion in the Building Energy Efficiency Register.

Civil penalty: 1,000 penalty units.

        (2)    The information to be provided by a constitutional corporation under subsection (1) is:

             (a)    the size of the building or area of a building to which the information relates;

             (b)    the electricity consumption for the building or area of the building for the relevant calendar year;

             (c)    the natural gas consumption, if any, for the building or area of the building for the relevant calendar year;

             (d)    any other information prescribed by the regulations for the purpose of this paragraph.

(2)    Clause 13, page 12 (after line 16), before paragraph (1)(a), insert:

           (aa)    the size of the building; and

           (ab)    the electricity consumption for the building for the preceding calendar year; and

           (ac)    the natural gas consumption, if any, for the building for the preceding calendar year; and

(3)    Clause 13, page 12 (after line 24), before paragraph (2)(a), insert:

           (aa)    the size of area of the building; and

           (ab)    the electricity consumption for the area of the building for the preceding calendar year; and

           (ac)    the natural gas consumption, if any, for the area of the building for the preceding calendar year; and

(4)    Page 14 (after line 7), after clause 13, insert:

        (1)    If the Commonwealth owns a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 1,000 square metres in area;

the Commonwealth must, by 1 January 2011, display the current building energy efficiency certificate for the building prominently in a location in the building that is accessible by the public.

        (2)    If the Commonwealth leases a building or an area of a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 1,000 square metres in area;

the owner of the building must, by 1 January 2011, display the current building energy efficiency certificate for the building or the relevant area of the building prominently in a location in the building or in the relevant area that is accessible by the public.

        (3)    If a constitutional corporation owns or leases a building or an area of a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 5,000 square metres in area;

the constitutional corporation must, by 1 January 2011, display the current building energy efficiency certificate for the building or the relevant area of the building prominently in a location in the building or in the relevant area that is accessible by the public.

        (4)    If a constitutional corporation owns or leases a building or an area of a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 4,000 square metres in area;

the constitutional corporation must, by 1 January 2012, display the current building energy efficiency certificate for the building or the relevant area of the building prominently in a location in the building or in the relevant area that is accessible by the public.

        (5)    If a constitutional corporation owns or leases a building or an area of a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 3,000 square metres in area;

the constitutional corporation must, by 1 January 2013, display the current building energy efficiency certificate for the building or the relevant area of the building prominently in a location in the building or in the relevant area that is accessible by the public.

        (6)    If a constitutional corporation owns or leases a building or an area of a building that is:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 2,000 square metres in area;

the constitutional corporation must, by 1 January 2014, display the current building energy efficiency certificate for the building or the relevant area of the building prominently in a location in the building or in the relevant area that is accessible by the public.

        (1)    The Minister must cause an independent review to be undertaken and completed by 31 December 2013 to consider whether the obligation to report annual energy use and the display requirements in subsections 13A(3) to (6) should be extended to buildings or areas of buildings owned or leased by constitutional corporations and that are:

             (a)    used or capable of being used as an office; and

             (b)    equal to or greater than 1,000 square metres in area.

        (2)    The review must be undertaken by a person who, in the Minister’s opinion, possesses appropriate qualifications to undertake the review.

        (3)    The person undertaking the review must give the Minister a written report of the review before 31 December 2013.

        (4)    The Minister must cause a copy of the report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the day on which the report is given to the Minister.

        (5)    The report is not a legislative instrument.

        (6)    The Minister must ensure that any bill to implement the recommendations of the review is introduced into the Parliament by 28 February 2014.

We do not have a running sheet so I will read what the Greens are proposing so that senators can clearly understand it. The first Greens amendment introduces a requirement that all office buildings affected by the bill—that is, those owned by a corporation and greater than 2,000 square metres—must annually report electricity and gas usage data with the building area. This data would be included on the Building Energy Efficiency Register. This energy use data—