Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Farrell. I am pleased that you will track them down—you now can do so. One of the problems that exists within our entire standards system is that of ensuring compliance. In many cases, the only way that compliance can be measured is when competitors and consumers report defects with the product and that leads people to understand that there is a standard not being met. We need this system to function well, not only because there is an overriding public interest in protecting the water supplies of not just urban Australia but all of Australia but also to protect manufacturers.

I am very pleased that the government, in this particular case at least, has seen their way clear to supporting companies that are doing the right thing and maintaining high standards. We need high standards in order to drive water efficiency in this country. We need to do it in a far more structured and sensible way than some of the rebate schemes aimed at improving efficiency in other areas, such as energy. They did nothing except distort the market and led to cowboy behaviour by people who have come into the industry late and ruined the industry for not only those who been there for many years but also for consumers and others. We only have to think of pink batts. That program was not just economically inefficient but disastrous in terms of the loss of life that was suffered. I commend the government for their enhancement of this scheme, which was initially developed by the coalition.