Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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—

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order: if it is of assistance, I know that the parliamentary secretary has these amendments. I most certainly have these amendments. They have been circulated. To save some time, I am happy for Senator Milne to assume that the opposition, and I hope I can speak for the government also, are aware of these amendments, so they will not need to be detailed.

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order; that was helpful, nevertheless.

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

I thank Senator Ronaldson for indicating that they now have the amendments in front of them. As I was just indicating, this energy data is essential if more advanced policies to improve commercial energy efficiency are to be introduced in the future. Such policies may include but are not limited to the energy efficient building scheme, which is the one we have introduced. That has been worked through with Lend Lease, Lincolne Scott and Advanced Environmental. If the government and the opposition will not support this, how are we going to accumulate the data in order to move to a different and much more comprehensive scheme so that we can actually get some mandatory changes happening in the built environment? This is about a data collection process with the current disclosure.

Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I indicate that the government is not supporting the amendments circulated by the Greens. We are unable to support them. We really believe that the amendments in these terms will not enhance the scheme and that the requirement for annual reporting will increase costs and deliver limited benefits. Requiring annual public display of a BEEC in a building is also unlikely to deliver significant additional benefits. Enforcement and monitoring of this provision would be difficult, given the form in which the certificate would be created.

The key is that this bill provides information at the point where it is most useful: the time of sale or lease. The government is open to considering further extensions of the scheme in the future. We will be looking at how government buildings not affected by the bill will be handled. The call for government buildings to display a BEEC would also be problematic to implement in these terms. So we do not see any benefits and we do see considerable risks in agreeing to these amendments as presently drafted.

I would like to say that this was non-controversial legislation. We were not expecting to see amendments in the committee stage. It is very difficult to negotiate around these things if we do not get the kind of notice that we need.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To save some time, I would like to comment on all the Greens amendments, and they can be taken as read as they are moved. The coalition identified the opportunity to better align the data collection and reporting systems with broader energy efficiency and emission abatement initiatives. The Green amendments pursue a similar goal, minus the consultative engagement of the coalition’s advocacy. The display requirement would trigger new obligations beyond the point of sale and point of lease requirements, and no opportunity has been provided to evaluate the costs and benefits of this new burden.

Given the lateness of the hour when the Greens have raised these amendments, it is difficult to judge how effectively they may contribute to the shared policy objective of this bill—and at what cost, impact and regulatory burden. There has been no opportunity for considered consultation with stakeholders. While not discounting the general ideas behind the amendments, it is not possible for the coalition to support the Greens proposed amendments at this time.

In closing, I will add further to the parliamentary secretary’s comments. This is meant to be non-controversial. We are all trying to facilitate the rapid passage of a large amount of legislation. The Greens’ behaviour in relation to this has certainly undermined the goodwill that should be behind these matters.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ronaldson, with all due respect, your comments do not help. We indicated that we had issues with this bill. Senator Milne has been working extremely hard on this. Even though the government wants to put this under ‘non-controversial legislation,’ we indicated that we had amendments and that we still wanted to talk about them. We have been trying to facilitate this program all week, so I really resent being accused of trying to hold up the agenda when we indicated that there were a couple of bills on this list on which we have more extensive comments and amendments and on which we may even want to divide.

This bill is an important one for us. If the government want to pull it and discuss it at a later hour, they should pull it. But do not blame us for suddenly changing the rules. Apparently it was put at the top of the list so that it could be dealt with more fully. So please do not have a go at us when we are just doing our job and have been trying all week to facilitate the agenda.

Question negatived.

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

by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (2) and (3) on sheet 6124 together:

(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

The chamber having rejected the first Greens amendment, I have moved these amendments which basically say that the same harvesting of data should occur but only when a neighbour’s rating is done for mandatory disclosure purposes. Obviously this would harvest much less data, but it is better than nothing. I am really shocked at what little concern there is about this issue, which is so critical to climate change.

Question negatived.

Mr Temporary Chairman McGauran, I ask that it be recorded that it was only the Greens in the Senate who supported Greens amendments (2) and (3). I now move Greens amendment (4) on sheet 6124:

(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.

Where a building is larger than 1,000 square metres and owned or leased by the Commonwealth from January 2011, where a building is larger than 5,000 square metres and owned or leased by a corporation from January 2011, where a building is larger than 4,000 square metres and owned or leased by a corporation from January 2012, where a building is larger than 3,000 square metres and owned or leased by a corporation from January 2013 and where a building is larger than 2,000 square metres and owned or leased by a corporation from January 2014, we have specified that all of those require the minister to commission a review in 2013 to consider extending the scheme by requiring office buildings down to 1,000 metres to display the BEEC. I think that is self-explanatory and I would be very surprised as to why anyone would object to it.

Question negatived.

Mr Temporary Chairman, I ask that it be recorded that only the Greens supported Greens amendment (4).

Bill agreed to.

Bill reported without amendment; report adopted.