Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Six days following the Senate’s endorsement of the Rudd government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan, I took the opportunity to accept an invitation from the General Manager of CSR Bradford, Anthony Tannous, to visit a new state-of-the-art business in Brendale in the north of Brisbane. The new factory opened its doors in January, operating with a small number of staff working Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4 pm each day. Following the announcement of the Energy Efficient Homes Package, the business is quickly gearing up to employ up to 70 staff and move to a 24-hour, seven-day operation. Clearly the component in the $42 billion stimulus package will generate local jobs in the community. In fact, in explanation on the subject of jobs, Mr Tannous claimed that the insulation industry prediction of 4,000 jobs may have been a serious underestimate. He went on to explain growth in installers, the company call centre, sales staff and transport operators as examples of where the job growth will occur.

The program will allow eligible Australian owner-occupiers to access and have installed for free insulation up to a cost of $1,600 from 1 July 2009 until 31 December 2011. Renters will also benefit from this scheme, with landlords entitled to a rebate of $1,000 per installation in their rental properties. Those who do not currently have insulation and organise for it to be installed before the date of the program’s commencement will be able to seek reimbursement from 1 July. Having never visited an insulation plant previously, I was amazed at the technology involved in making the product. The main hub of the factory is the furnace, which will operate 24 hours a day over the next six to eight years, melting recycled glass to make insulation rolls and batts.

During debate on the Nation Building and Jobs Plan legislation, those opposite, rather than develop an understanding of the benefits of this part of the package, continued with scepticism by the bucketload. In her contribution to the debate, one Queensland senator explained receiving an email suggesting that, if we were worried about energy efficiency for homes, better curtains would be a great starting point for many homes. This contribution reminded me of the sceptics of the daylight saving trials in Queensland many years ago. People worried about whether curtains would fade as a result of the extra sunlight. Sure, an additional supply of curtains would assist, but they must have pelmets to stop convective heat loss. I arranged for my office to conduct some detailed research in this area with the following findings. Andersons Window Furnishings were very helpful. For a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, family-and-dining-room home, they said they would charge from $15,000 to $20,000 for curtains and pelmets. They said pelmets were expensive and if we picked curtains with linings without pelmets it would bring the cost down to about $10,000. The second place contacted was Curtain Wonderland. They said pelmets cost about $150-plus a metre, with the fabric price on top of that for the curtains. The senator went on to describe how the construction supply industry should be introduced in an orderly and sensible way—there is no argument about that—so as not to encourage, in her words, ‘every cowboy in town who went broke on the last fad to become an insulation installer’.

The government’s new guidelines will set strict registration and competency training requirements for new entrants into the industry, but they will not restrict job growth. Senator Fifield asked:

But how many Australian jobs are going to be created or saved by such a massive boost to a small industry?

He went on to hypothetically suggest:

What is likely to happen is this: a massive, unscheduled increase in demand for home insulation will see a major spike in the prices of home insulation. Some employees from other productive sectors of the economy will switch over to installing insulation in people’s homes. Once the government incentive stops or the installations are complete, the insulation sector will experience a massive contraction and a huge percentage of its workforce will be laid off.

We now know the industry has underestimated the 4,000-job growth in this area of the package alone. We are informed that the government expects that, once the economy has recovered, in the construction industry in particular there will be little, if any, impact in this area. Only six months ago, the construction industry was desperately short of labour due to 11½ years of a lack of training and job placements—neglect from the past government. Senator Williams in his contribution spoke generally about there being many people in Australia, especially in New South Wales and Queensland, who live in timbered homes. He went on to explain how Nancy, who has a small, two-bedroom timber home in Bingara near the Tamworth-Inverell area, where it gets extremely hot, a couple of years ago put batts in the ceiling and none in the walls. The senator went on to assert that, due to not having insulation in the walls, somehow the house is hotter, despite having insulation in the roof. I checked with the industry on this theory, and they explained that, although insulation in the walls would assist, the temperature would be worse in general without the insulation in the ceiling. Additionally, a home with an insulated roof lets less heat in than an uninsulated home, so there is less heat to remove.

Turning to the other advantages, there are copious benefits to the environment from installing insulation in dwellings. Insulation works as a barrier to heat transfer, helping to keep out unwanted heat in summer and preserving precious warmth inside the home in winter. It can also help soundproof the home from unwanted airborne noise transfer. Heating and cooling account for around 38 per cent of a typical home’s energy use. Installing ceiling insulation alone can save over 40 per cent of heating and cooling costs. Energy efficiency offers ongoing economic, environmental and social benefits—in particular through reduced energy bills, which effectively are equivalent to an ongoing tax cut. The ongoing savings in household energy bills provide a significant offset to rising energy costs and also reduce pressure on Australia’s seriously stretched energy supply system.

In residential homes alone, it is estimated that Australians are expelling over 70 million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually—an amount projected to increase each year. By installing R3.5 ceiling batts, an average uninsulated home will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by around 850kgs every year. New energy generation capacity delivers direct and ongoing benefits to the environment in greenhouse gas savings. I am informed that, in general, installing ceiling insulation such as Bradford Gold batts allows a home to be 10 degrees warmer and stops up to 70 per cent of heat transfer, making winter a lot more comfortable. In summer, insulation keeps a home up to seven degrees cooler, making it easier and cheaper to maintain a regular and comfortable temperature. So there we have it: the economy and the environment being well balanced by this government. All the facts need to be examined before the sceptics go about their salvo of fanciful comments on this part of the Rudd government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan.