Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (22:42): (2036) My matter is for the attention of the Minister for Energy and Resources, and it relates to correspondence I have received from a number of practitioners of the residential efficiency scorecard system, a program that the government has decided to close on 30 June 2026. The program is run by a small team in the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and has been managed by that team on behalf of all Australian governments for the last three years. Scorecard assessments are available Australia-wide through assessors trained and accredited by the program. It is clear that funding will be withdrawn from 1 July 2026 as the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme, NatHERS, for existing home software is scheduled to be implemented by this date. This is a national system, but it is not yet proven, and we are in danger of repeating earlier scenarios where there were less than satisfactory assessment systems in place. The risk is that the scorecard program is closed, seeing 160 assessor jobs gone and a lack of availability for a whole series of people across the community who want assessments that are independent.

I note that this is a bipartisan point I am trying to make here. I would have thought that this is a program that we could agree on across the aisle here in Victoria. It is the best program in Australia. The new national approach is not yet proven, and there is every reason to believe that it is actually not up to scratch, so we risk seeing a significant disaster.

This particular program first came to fruition under the minister for environment at the time, Ryan Smith, in the Napthine government, and I am very aware of its history. The Commonwealth government has been working on a new tool – two separate pieces of software – to develop NatHERS for existing homes. However, those who have been trained on the new material know that it is not equivalent or even close to equivalent to the current scorecard system. So that is the problem: people will not be able to have that independent advice. The energy savings and cost savings and the more comfortable living environment created after a home has been properly assessed and advice has been implemented will not be as easily available and not as easily delivered.

As I understand it, $1 million annually is what is being talked about as a cut to this particular program, the scorecard program. We are concerned that this is a misplaced cut. If you want to reduce emissions, you have highly trained professionals out there who have got a great system, an internationally recognised system and a system that is better than the one the government is wanting to replace it with. And the system they are replacing it with is more costly. They have spent, I am told, $63 million in the last year on the new system.