VICTORIA’S HOME GAS BAN SET TO COOK UP A DISASTER
Herald Sun, Monday, Jan 8, 2024
Ross - Jamieson
From last week, the Victorian government no longer accepts plans for new homes with gas cooking, heating and hot water systems – all appliances that have served Victorians for decades.
Alone among Australian states, from January 1, the Allan government has decided to deny its citizens the right to decide how they cook their food and heat their homes.
All supposedly in the name of emissions reductions.
That’s an absurdity given gas use in homes accounts for about 2 per cent of Australia’s carbon emissions, and Victoria still gets more than 60 per cent of its electricity from brown coal – the dirtiest power generation in the country.
Of course, it is nonsense to expect that readers contemplating building a new home, or developers planning new apartment complexes, would have been able to submit their 2024 plans before New Year’s Day – but it was also absurd to give them less than five months to do so when the policy was first announced in July.
The policy will hit the state’s gas appliance manufacturers hard.
More than 130 jobs have already been lost. A further 350 workers are expected to be laid off in the months ahead.
The policy does have its beneficiaries – foreign makers of electric cooktops, stoves, heaters and hot water systems among them.
While 60 per cent of gas appliances sold in Australia are made in Australia, more than 95 per cent of electric appliances sold here are imported – mainly from China.
The impacts of these policies have been highlighted to the government for months, but still Premier Jacinta Allan and her Energy and Climate Minister Lily D’Ambrosio want to drive their electric car off an ideological cliff – with seemingly little concern for the consequences.
The Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia is supportive of the government’s target to transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – and we want to work collaboratively with the government to achieve this.
The transition to net zero needs to be done with the consideration of supply chains, Victorian families, Australian workers and local appliance suppliers.
The Victorian government’s proposal to prevent installation of gas connections to new residences will also prevent those residences from using renewable gas in future.
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Renewable gas, including bio-methane, is already being blended into natural gas supply in some areas and this will increase in the future as gas distributors advance their plans to achieve net zero.
A major change such as this requires careful planning and a sensible transition period.
The Victorian government has failed on both fronts.
The current timeline proposed by the Victorian government could result in the loss of more than 1300 Australian jobs, delayed project completion times due to supply chain issues and increased overall costs for Victorian families.
The cost of all-electric homes by major builders is being quoted between $9000 to $16,000 more than gas-fitted homes – extra financial pressure put on Victorian families in a cost-of-living crisis.
The new proposal in the updated Victorian Gas Substitution Roadmap to restrict gas appliances in rental homes only stands to hit tenants with higher rents.
The Allan government has promised that Victorians would benefit from cost savings as a result of these policies – but has not produced any credible evidence that this will be the case.
The updated Gas Substitution Roadmap is riddled with assurances of consultation with the industry through a regulatory impact statement.
However, if the first iteration consultation process is anything to go by, these sentiments are no more than a tick-a-box exercise.
GAMAA has advocated time and time again for the Victorian government to be realistic with its approach to substituting gas in our energy mix.
However, our concerns and requests have fallen on deaf ears.
The Allan government appears uninterested in the consequences its policies have for Victorian families, Victorian workers, and Victorian businesses.
They are mere collateral in an ideological agenda against the gas industry.
Ross Jamieson is president of the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia
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11mo“The cost of all-electric homes by major builders is being quoted between $9000 to $16,000 more than gas-fitted homes – extra financial pressure put on Victorian families in a cost-of-living crisis.” That comment upsets me because I believed we live/d in a “democracy” which means WE HAVE CHOICE. Labor don’t want that and are removing our “choice.” Costs are killing us and this stinks (and that’s not the “gas”)