Building and Other Legislation Amendment Bill
Friday, 13 November 2009 10:56
Dr FLEGG (Moggill—LNP) (12.23 pm): Once again with this bill we see a government whose only recourse is to add more red tape to burden the lives of people who live in Queensland as a result of government members and ministers who have never done anything in the real world to understand the implications. If those opposite had been out in the real world, they would understand what the effects of these halfwitted decisions are on thepeople who have to live with them. However, the government’s solution for more efficient houses is a 56-question questionnaire. We are not playing 20 questions here; we are playing 56 questions that elderly Queenslanders who are going into a nursing home have to complete not to settle a contract on their home but just to put their home on the market! I just think this is absolutely outrageous and an indictment of the way this government approaches things. There is so much that could be done in relation to sustainability in this state that just goes through to the keeper because the government does not know what happens in the real world and its only solution is a 56-question questionnaire.
Let me give one example. Our recently privatised electricity retailers provide a system where consumers can contract with them for their retail power and receive a five per cent discount for that power or their 13th month free, which equates to about an eight per cent discount. However, there is one group of householders who cannot get that discount because the government’s privatised retailers will not allow them to get a discount. And who are they? They are the people who put solar panels on the roof of their house. They get no discount. So they not only do not get a gross feed-in tariff if they put solar panels on their house but are paid a pittance. In fact, in the last quarter for mine at home I got $25 back. Given the net cost of the system, I will have to wait until I turn 115 before I have recovered the net cost of it. Not only that, those people then find that a discount that is available to every other homeowner is not available because they have put solar panels on their roof. But this government’s solution is a 56- question questionnaire, not actually doing something that would assist people who are trying to do the right thing!
One of the inevitable effects of a 56-question declaration is that the cost of selling or buying a home in Queensland will go up as a result of this decision today. Sometimes we accept that things can push up the price of homes. We sometimes accept that new homes should have water tanks, that new homes should have insulation and that new homes should not use electric hot water but use more expensive sources of hot water, but at least people get something for their money. For the cost of completing the 56-question questionnaire, Queenslanders will get absolutely nothing!
This sort of declaration by a seller of a property is not new. We have been ticking the box on the electrical safety switches. There are issues in relation to, for example, pool fencing that a person might have to declare, although I can assure the minister that any changes to that are very recent. There may be declarations in relation to smoke alarms, fire safety and asbestos. But all of these things have something in common, and that is that if we do not get them right they could possibly impact the life of somebody who buys the house. Even though they impose an obligation and sometimes a cost on either the seller or the buyer of a home, because they are in relation to protecting somebody’s life we can see that there is an argument and that there may be a justification.
There are areas which do not require any declarations which still might impact people’s lives. Wehave seen balcony collapses around South-East Queensland. There is no declaration in relation to the solidity or the engineering of a balcony, but we do have a 56-question questionnaire where you have to declare whether you have a swimming pool. I have never bought a house where I could not tell whethe rit had a swimming pool! You have to declare whether there is a covered patio. I have never bought a house where I could not tell if it had a covered patio! These matters are not matters that relate to public safety; these are matters that the seller is being asked to make a declaration on when they are rightly matters that the buyer should be making an assessment on.
I have spoken to four lawyers in relation to this absurd piece of government bureaucracy. All four lawyers to whom I have spoken have said that a sustainability declaration, which will be mandatory when you sell your home, or your investment property or any other residence, is a representation. I can imagine some lawyers rubbing their hands together because this is one more area where lawyers cantry to set a precedent in court that will allow people to void a contract or, more particularly, will allow people to avoid settling a contract so that they can put pressure on a desperate vendor to lower the price. I think the government has gone completely mad to produce a 56-question declaration of this type. No homeowner will be able to fill out this declaration. Most members of this House could not fillout this declaration. My estimate is that it would cost $500. It is not just 56 questions but 56 amazing questions about how many kilograms of greenhouse gases your home produces. You have to declare this just to put your house on the market—not even to sell your house, just to put your house on the market. Of the 56 questions, 27—
Mr Robertson interjected.
Mr Hinchliffe interjected. Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hoolihan): Order! Minister, member for Mermaid Beach, the memberfor Moggill is on his feet. Please discontinue your banter across this chamber.
Dr FLEGG: Of the 56 questions, 27 relate to energy, 12 relate to water, 11 relate to access andonly six relate to safety. After you have finished your 56-question questionnaire—and I hope Queenslanders have a good look at what the government has inflicted on them here—you then do a household report card where you have to give your annual household electricity cost. I suppose if you go back and find four electricity bills and add them up, most of us could probably manage to find out what they spent on electricity. But then you have to give your annual household electricity use in kilowatt hours. This is what every Queenslander who sells a property is going to be expected to be able to doand it is a joke. It is an absolute joke that achieves absolutely nothing for the environment.
But it gets worse—much worse. You then have to give the approximate kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions from annual household electricity use. We are demanding that people fill out this garbage just to list their house for sale with a real estate agent. The report card goes on. You have to give your household water costs. So you have to go back and find all of your water costs. One thing Queenslanders can be sure of is that the annual cost of their water is going to rise pretty sharply.
I had a look at what I had spent money on to retrofit my own home, which would be very consistent with what my constituents in Moggill—and I am sure the constituents of many other members—have tried to do in order to reduce their carbon footprint, to reduce their impact on the environment. Despite the fact that I have ditched my six-cylinder car and a few other things, I was one ofthe first people in Queensland to get photovoltaic cells to generate electricity. I threw out my storage hotwater system and replaced it with a heat pump. After making some comments publicly that people should look at switching off their drinks fridge in the garage, I have switched off my drinks fridge in the garage. I have replaced all of my light bulbs with energy-efficient ones. I have installed a number of water tanks. I have put a pool blanket on the pool. I have ripped out the electric stove and replaced it with gas. Moggill is not supplied with town gas so I have gas cylinders delivered to me. But now, on topof that, despite attempting to do the right thing, the government wants to hit me—and this is not just me,I am just using my circumstances as an example—with another 500 bucks for a consultant to fill out a form before I can list my house for sale. A whole new industry is going to be built around this bit of
nonsense.
For many years we have seen the motor vehicle industry advertise for a free safety check for your car. Of course, by offering a free safety check you could obtain some work repairing something,because nobody does something for nothing. Recently, I have noticed many ads offering to check people’s roofs for free. I would like to know how many roofs are found to not need any work done on them. The government is going to create a whole new industry of people offering to fill out this reportcard but then making representations, particularly, I suspect, to older Queenslanders, such as ‘This is expected of you. The government has put out this form because you really should have these things done. They did not make this form mandatory for nothing.’ Maybe the minister for fair trading ought to behaving something to say about this report card. I feel very strongly about this report card. I think it is a quite outrageous imposition on the homeowners and home sellers of Queensland.
Briefly, in relation to rest of the bill—and I will be brief because, once I saw the form, that wasabout it for me—I could not believe that any government could be so stupid as to put this sort of imposition on every single Queenslander when they sell their house. So I did not get very much further than the form. But I noticed a couple of other issues in the bill that I thought I might comment on. One isin relation to noise mitigation around main roads. I think most people would understand that there maybe a need for this. Interestingly, if people buy a property on a Queensland main road, there is no obligation on the seller to say whether the house has any noise mitigation. But, of course, there is a lotof confusion because many main roads are not main roads but are council roads. For example, Moggill Road is a state government road to which this provision would apply—until such time it passed underthe western freeway at Chapel Hill. From then on, Moggill Road becomes a Brisbane City Council road. My understanding is that, for the person who lives in the last house on Moggill Road before it passes under the western freeway, this provision would apply. For the person who lives in the first house on Moggill Road after it goes under the western freeway, this provision would not apply. Although this provision is supportable, it could certainly be a little bit confusing.
The government is concerned that developers who write up covenants and bodies corporate might prevent people from doing certain activities that may be beneficial to the environment. Interestingly, I notice—and the minister may wish to comment on this issue for me—that the installationof solar hot-water systems and photovoltaic cells are covered but heat pumps are not. I may bemistaken on that. There have certainly been developments in my own electorate, which tend to be in large lots, where the covenants have prohibited heat pumps. I must say that I am at a loss to understand why anyone would want to do that.
When I asked, the reason I was given was that they make noise. They certainly do not make any more noise than a pool pump or an air conditioner. In fact, in my experience they make less noise.
It also raises some fairly significant issues in relation to solar hot water and photovoltaic cells when it comes to community title schemes. The roof on which those structures are to be installed belongs to the body corporate. What area would belong to what unit owner for the purpose of his solarhot-water system or his photovoltaic cells? Could one unit owner cover the whole roof or a large portionof the roof of a building? There are issues relating to liability for bodies corporate in relation to that. Perhaps the minister would like to make some comments in relation to that.
I also notice comments in relation to minimum floor areas. This is a pretty touchy subject with a lot of people, particularly in light of some of the overcrowding issues that have arisen in Brisbane with overseas students and the like which have been commented on by the Brisbane City Council. I wouldnot mind hearing from the minister his comments in relation to minimum floor areas, which obviously have the potential to increase the occupancy of certain properties. In essence, whilst the opposition is supportive of the thrust of many parts of the bill, we think the imposition of this sustainability declaration on every homeowner in Queensland when they come to list that property for sale is outrageous.