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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-18 Daily Xml
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ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 17 February 2009. Page 1275.)

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (21:55): I understand that the members who wished to speak on this bill have already done so. I thank the Hon. Mr Ridgway and the Hon. Mr Parnell for their contributions and indications of support, and also other members who have not spoken but have indicated their support for this bill.

I will make a couple of comments in closing the debate. I have had a meeting with the Architects Board in the past few days, after they had a chance to examine the board in detail. The board raised a couple of issues with me which I have undertaken to investigate before the final passage of this bill. I have not got my response back on that yet but I will make sure that I have before this bill goes through the committee stage.

Essentially, there were two issues. First, it wanted an assurance that the members of the Architects Board and the registrar were exempt from liability incurred for their actions in good faith. My advice is that that is covered in other legislation, but I did undertake that I would check that out and, if necessary, make an amendment to the bill that would make that absolutely beyond doubt if, in fact, there was any doubt.

The other issue raised with me related to the functions of the board. The board believes that it should have an educative function. I certainly have no problem with that and, of course, there is nothing that would stop the board from having that function. Just because it is not specifically one of the functions does not mean that it cannot do it, but I did undertake to have a look to see whether the bill could be amended to ensure that it contains that provision. They are relatively minor matters that I believe do not in any way affect the operation of the board, but I did undertake to look at them. As soon as I get the response back we can proceed through the passage of this bill.

I also make some comments in relation to the Hon. Mark Parnell's contribution. He was supportive of the bill but he did raise the issue of energy efficiency and he made the point that we should improve the efficiency of our buildings from the current five-star rating to, I think the suggestion was, a seven-star rating. I do not disagree with the proposition that our current ratings for energy efficiency do not go far enough. There have been some lengthy discussions through the ministerial council on this. The next meeting will be held within the next few weeks in New South Wales.

New South Wales has a system of energy efficiency rating called BASIX, which is a somewhat more flexible scheme than the star rating used by other states. Some work has been done through the standing committees to see whether that scheme in New South Wales could be adapted to other states. I would expect that there would be some progress on that at the next ministerial meeting.

I certainly agree with the honourable member that architecture is important for the design of buildings if we are to achieve energy efficiency standards and, for that matter, water efficiency standards, which is also a matter that the government has put a lot of effort into, and I would hope that we will be making some announcement on those matters fairly soon in conjunction with the federal government.

I agree in principle that we need to look at the operation of our energy rating schemes. Part of the problem that we have, of course, is that you can have a rating in a scheme but it does not necessarily follow that, if you have a high number of stars—in other words, a house that has been designed efficiently—the user of that house will necessarily operate it efficiently.

In my view, we still have a fair way to go to ensure that we do achieve practical energy efficiency, not just in the design of places but to ensure that the people who live in houses actually do reduce their energy output. That is a somewhat more detailed subject for another day and is only peripheral to the bill, but I thank the honourable member for his comments. I commend the bill to the council and, when we resume in committee, probably in the next sitting week, I should have some further information in relation to those issues raised by the board.

Bill read a second time.

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