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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-27 Daily Xml
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BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK (15:09): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development a question about energy efficiency standards for buildings.

Leave granted.

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: We recently heard criticism from ETSA Utilities about the energy inefficiency of buildings at Mawson Lakes, despite the fact that the company responsible promoted the project as being environmentally friendly. Mr Lew Owens of ETSA Utilities revealed that the average home at Mawson Lakes is peaking in its power use at 12 kW/hr, compared with 3 to 6 kW/hr in metropolitan Adelaide. He has called on the government to change the planning laws to ensure that new homes are better designed.

The energy efficiency standards we use in designing buildings are assigned a building star rating, which has been called into question. Some city buildings gain extra points for energy efficiency simply by virtue of being close to a public transport route, which has nothing to do with the energy efficiency of the building and makes the star rating system less credible. In addition to that issue, a constituent has raised with me the question of who signs off on what are promoted as energy efficient buildings.

Section 88(2) of the Development Act requires that an independent technical expert will certify that a building complies with the appropriate standards. My constituent is concerned that we in South Australia do not have these independent technical experts in large numbers, and he has queried whether high energy-use buildings, masquerading as energy efficient, might have slipped through under the radar as a consequence. I note also that Archicentre has recently called for 10 star energy-efficient buildings as part of the necessary response to climate change, and this places pressure on the government to ensure that our energy-efficient building standards are robust. My questions to the minister are:

1. How many local government authorities in South Australia have staff with knowledge of and training in energy-efficient building standards—that is, qualified auditors—to be able to sign off on compliance for energy efficiency?

2. Do any of the companies constructing houses and buildings have their own in-house expertise available to sign off on such compliance? If so, is it appropriate that this be done in-house, given that section 88 of the act refers to technical experts with the rider 'independent'?

3. Does the minister agree with ETSA Utilities that better building design is required in South Australia? If so, what changes will he be making as a consequence, and will he take the matter of improving energy-efficient building standards to COAG?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:11): I will take the last question first. One of the issues we have to address in relation to building design—and this comes back to housing standards—is that there are national agreements. The building standards that we adopt under our various codes are, of course, national standards. There are variations in certain areas to allow for geographical differences but, for very good reasons, there are national standards.

In relation to the question about whether better building design is important, yes, of course that is the case, but it is not the only thing. I think one of the points that I suspect Lew Owens was making is that, even if one has a well-designed house, if people do not utilise it properly, such as leaving the lights on, just because it is well-designed does not mean that it is low energy usage. Obviously, a small, well-designed house will on average use less energy than a very large, well-designed house. Reducing energy through building design alone is a difficult issue, but it is obviously something that this government pays a lot of attention to.

We have the Office of Sustainability and other government agencies which contribute to the design and standards. Obviously, the government adopts a number of policies to encourage energy efficiency so, where design is important, it is not the only factor. We have to work in with other states regarding the building materials that are used, with the right insulation properties and so on. As 8 per cent of the market, we cannot expect that building materials will be unique or made especially for our state. So, we have to work in with other states.

Different methods are used in some states, such as New South Wales, to assess energy efficiency. We have a star rating, and the honourable member has highlighted some of the shortcomings of that. Other states such as New South Wales have a different system of assessing, which also has shortcomings. A lot of work is being done on a national level through the relevant ministerial council (the planning minister's council) to try to produce better codes which, at a national level, can improve efficiency.

The first two questions asked for statistics in relation to experts within the local government sector and the housing sector who are able to judge compliance. I do not have those statistics on me, and I am not sure whether that information will be easily obtained, but I will undertake to provide what information I can on that matter.

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