Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

The Commonwealth, state and territory governments released a Consultation Regulation Impact Statement in July 2011 on the proposed Residential Mandatory Disclosure Scheme and undertook a series of public consultations and web-based discussions throughout July and August. The Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) looked at the costs and benefits of various options for the proposed scheme. Submissions closed on 12 September 2011 and 137 submissions were received. Governments are now considering the submissions and will develop a Decision Regulation Impact Statement on the proposed measure to present to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2012.

Implementation of the scheme was initially intended to be phased in by May 2011: however, due to lengthy inter-jurisdictional consideration of scheme design and implementation options, the Ministerial Council on Energy extended the timeframe and the scheme is now due to be implemented from 2012.

The proposed measure will be implemented by state and territory governments in accordance with applicable state or territory legislation. The timing of implementation will ultimately be a matter for state and territory governments to determine.

The COAG commitment does not specify a national scheme. Governments are working together to identify which elements of the scheme would be most efficiently and effectively delivered within a consistent framework.

The analysis in the RIS considers the benefits and costs of national implementation of the different scheme options. This is consistent with the COAG commitment.

The RIS does not explicitly model the rating tools currently used in the ACT and Queensland, the two jurisdictions that have a version of mandatory disclosure. However, it does draw on judgements and seek comment on the likely impacts of using similar tools when modelling scheme options.

No, the Consultation RIS provides a benefit-cost analysis of different implementation options for mandatory disclosure, and explicit within the description of each of these options are the assumptions around the accuracy and technical complexity of the assessment tool.

Public consultation sessions were held in each capital city and were widely advertised in major and regional newspapers. Ten online discussion sessions were also held to provide a further opportunity for stakeholders to ask questions or raise issues. Meetings were held with Commonwealth and state officials and major stakeholder groups including:

All non-confidential submissions are available on the Ministerial Council on Energy website at: www.mce.gov.au/quicklinks/submissions.html.