On the role that governments can play – off each other

More than ever, the role of governments is centre stage for our future. The private sector has its own drivers and agendas. Its energy for self-improvement and progress can spur exciting creativity and innovation, something perhaps endemic to all living organisms.

But without strong guardrails, self-interest can devolve to a narcissism that’s damaging to a lot of other living organisms.

So it’s a relief when one side of government does the right thing even though its upper levels don’t and even criticise the lower levels for the action. This does a bit to balance the impact of sectoral interests or political pressures that force the hands of the bigger mob sitting above.

It also means there’s a lot of pressure lower down, at local government level.

The New South Wales government versus the City of Sydney for instance.

The state has proposed a Gas Decarbonisation Roadmap that is supposed to get homes and businesses off gas. But while one hand giveth, the other taketh away.

The City of Sydney recently announced its previously mooted proposal that will now ban gas in all new residential buildings, starting from 2026, despite furious backlash from the gas lobby that we covered last year.

The rule will save households up to $626 on their power bills every year, which is a lot in a cost of living crisis and in a climate crisis where conventional energy bills are forecast to rise so much they could potentially be lethal for people who can’t afford basic standards of comfort – even in a rich country like Australia.

Along with Sydney councils including Hornsby Shire, Lane Cove, City of Newcastle, Waverley, City of Parramatta, and City of Canada Bay get the reality of the impact on their communities and have already banned gas in new builds.

Did the state’s first pollie Chris Minns pat them on the back for standing up to the fossil fuel lobby?

No.

Minns instead said the ban was an “overstep” and that “things like gas on your stove top, as well as solar and batteries, are all part of the future mix”.

The City of Sydney’s move was likely to alienate public support for this “economic change” he said, rather than drive them towards it.

Could he apply the same reasoning to making cigarettes dirt cheap again? Our understanding of the common good is that what’s better for individual health and household budgets is good for us all.

Treasury needs to have a louder voice and a broader perspective on our collective budgets, you’d think.

Heidi Lee Douglas, chief executive of Solar Citizens, an increasingly interesting new voice in the space (and watch this space) pointed to the conflict between the state government’s plans for more high-density housing – with 60,000 new apartments due to be approved before November 2027 under the Transport Oriented Development Program – and the failure to “access clean energy with reduced energy bills.”

Consider how future residents will be able to pay their mortgage.

Or even pay the mortgage, we’d add.

Let’s not forget Mr Minns that gas in the home is a proven toxin triggering asthma and other health problems that you’d fully expect to come from toxic fossil fuels and whose emissions in gas cook tops or unflued gas heaters the gas industry blithely ignore while it promotes the lie of “natural gas”. (Natural in the sense it comes from the earth and natural in the way petrol is natural.)

Douglas pointed out the contradiction in the Minns’ attitude.

“On one hand, the NSW government has committed to start getting homes and businesses off gas from 2026 under their Gas Decarbonisation Roadmap, whereas on the other, they are refusing to take any action to prevent new homes being built with inefficient, expensive gas appliances.

“Quite rightly, NSW councils are taking matters into their own hands to ensure the provision of healthy, energy efficient and future-proof homes that are affordable to heat, cool and cook in.”

Sadly, we’d like to point out the same old problem we’ve forever pointed out – that the state government sits on the lap of certain parts of the housing lobby that pulled the strings to stop those “outrageous” mandates for white roofs and demanded its rights for black roofs forcing the sacking of planning minister at the time Rob Stokes.

This is the same issue – yet another state government – doing what it’s told.

Victoria

In Victoria the state there has also taken a backward step after leading the nation, as it should, on degassification, given it has the heaviest reliance on gas in the whole country.

It signalled the retreat amid good news. Typical of the clever elevated PR strategies at the top end of business and political life to obfuscate and confuse – in the Russian way – mixing in a bit of bad news with the good so you look ungrateful to complain.

First, the Victorian Greens laid claim to some big wins in phasing out fossil fuels and to “help renters in more comfortable efficient homes”.

Victorian Greens Leader Ellen Sandell said it was thanks to the Greens balance of power in the Victorian Upper House that the state could now roll out $40 million in climate programs that lift standards for all rental homes, including Victoria’s public housing stock, to meet minimum energy efficiency standards – such as requiring insulation in ceilings, draught-proofing, low-flow showerheads, and mandatory energy efficient heating and cooling in living rooms. Other reforms include:

• Mandatory end-of-life replacement for gas hot water appliances
• $10 million for industry to transition to manufacturing efficient electrical appliances
• $10 million for food and beverage manufacturers and dairy farms to transition away from gas
• $5 million for on-farm electrification projects
• $5 million to expand the Upskilling for Plumbers and Upskilling for Electricians programs

But at the same time the phasing out of gas heaters and cooktops was ignored.

“It was disappointing, however, that the state government had not included gas heaters in a list of appliances that must be replaced with efficient electric appliances at the end of their life” Sandell said.

“This is the Labor Premier Jacinta Allan scaling back ambition on climate action and is really disappointing to see.”

Maybe she’d been chatting to Chris Minns for some tips on how to placate the gas industry, which to be fair has been upping the ante in its tactics to show it’s warm and cuddly and completely harmless.

But Luke Menzel, chief executive officer of the Energy Efficiency Council, said the mainstream media had gone too far in the attack and that the Victorians would soon be first in the nation to move towards all new residential buildings and nearly all commercial buildings to be gas-free.

And the minimum standards for rental properties were “very ambitious” and again, a first for the country.

Sure, that’s been a huge battle and to be rightly celebrated.

But why did the Victorian and NSW government pull their punches? Why don’t they share who sees them, what they say and what deals are cooked up behind closed doors?

We don’t have the time for this patient capital stuff.

We are running out of time.

Local government

Meanwhile local government has no illusions it’s at the real “coal face” of climate change. It has to be the first to pick up the pieces when their community’s world falls apart or gets even mildly hammered by nasty climate events.

In recent days the national umbrella group for councils the Australian Local Government Association is calling for $400 million a year in funding for climate adaptation to deal with the growing damage from climate change.

President Matt Burnett said that the 2022 south-east Queensland floods caused “$492 million in infrastructure damage, including about 1718 km of state-controlled roads, a ferry sinking, 17 TAFE campuses closing, and 3050 repair work orders for social housing properties”.

And the damage elsewhere continues as a regular event on the nightly news with people homeless, desperate, lives destroyed.

Queensland

Speaking of Queensland has the government there not heard, the Australian people rejected a Trump future when it unambiguously booted out the hopes and dreams of opposition leader Peter Dutton for the same.

The Guardian reported this week that shadow minister for reconciliation Leeanne Enoch tabled a partly redacted document in question time on Thursday that reads: “Departments are no longer permitted to add additional departmental branding elements such as the First Nations acknowledgement.”

Shades of Tony Abbott who under his federal government regime banned the words sustainability and climate change, we need to remind people and inform our younger readers because words matter.

Meanwhile the future of Victoria Park, the subject of an extensive article by Marcus Foth, on our site that’s gone viral, has been sealed with legislation passed on Wednesday night that “overrides a swathe of planning and heritage laws to permit construction of the stadium”.

There’s more we could write. Please support us to help us resource the growing number of issues and opportunities in this new emerging world.

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