Plotting a clear path to net zero emissions, detailed planning for the electrification of cities and EV integration in buildings are the top three items on the industry’s to-do list for the incoming Labor government in New South Wales.
Despite being one seat short of the 47 needed to form a majority government, Labor leader Chris Minns was sworn in as state Premier on Tuesday along with a skeleton cabinet that included Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, Transport Minister Jo Haylen and Education Mininster Prue Car. Paul Scully is likely to be named Planning Minister when the full cabinet is sworn in.
As of Tuesday afternoon, six seats were still too close to call with a margin of less than 0.5 per cent.
Improving the housing supply is the top priority for the Planning Institute of Australia.
“The government needs to focus on getting the right housing into the right places. We need to move away from the notion of housing just being a number. Housing is more than just an investment, it’s a home for people. We are calling for a housing summit to turn up the dial on planning reform,” national policy manager John Brockhoff said.
Industry is broadly supportive of Labor’s energy transition plan, but experts told The Fifth Estate more detailed was needed on how cities will be fully electrified in coming years.
“We’ve seen talk from the federal and state energy ministers that we need to do an ‘electrification of everything’ and we haven’t seen any detail. The property sector is the obvious starting point,” said Tim Buckley, director, climate energy finance at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Strata New South Wales would like the government to focus on integrating EV charging into strata buildings and work to mitigate issues such as safety, shared ownership and managing higher electricity loads.
The previous NSW government set a pathway to net zero for the buildings it owns, with strict procurement standards around energy performance, electrification and embedded carbon. The Property Council of Australia is calling for a broader approach to include all NSW government-owned and leased property.
“The government has an important role to play in encouraging sustainable building practices – providing incentives, mandating certain practices, investing in research and development, creating education and training programs and setting sustainability targets,” Property Council Acting NSW executive director Adina Cirson said.
Reducing the carbon footprints of new and existing buildings, particularly urban precincts, is another key concern.
“Developing carbon budgets can identify plausible pathways to meet next zero targets. Then development control plans can enable their implementation. This should help developers to incorporate more urban green space into developments,” Brockhoff said.
Australia has some of the worst rated housing in the world
IEEFA is urging the government to focus on the residential sector, which it claims has some of the worst-performing buildings in the world in terms of their energy performance.
“The property sector is the tale of two cities – the NABERS ratings in the commercial sector versus the residential sector where we have some of the worst rated property in the world. This is low-hanging fruit and there’s no point putting solar on your roof if you’re living in a tin,” Buckley said.
The residential investment sector suffers from what Buckley terms a “split incentive problem” where landlords are empowered to take action on energy efficiency but decline due to lack of motivation, and tenants are unable to take action.
Offering incentives such as incorporating energy efficiency measures into home valuations, making capital gains visible to homeowners and financiers, would spur investors into taking action, Buckley added.
While it is more than a year since the state’s last major flooding emergency and four years since the Black Summer bushfires, reform is still needed to mitigate the impact of future extreme weather events that will become more frequent with climate change, the PIA’s Brockhoff said.
“The new government must prioritise and deliver on all items proposed from the bushfire and flooding control reforms, and that includes policies around resettlement.”
Also on the policy wish list is a review of the Emergency Services Levy that Strata NSW claims is costing apartment owners an extra 18 per cent in annual insurance premiums. Industry groups also urge the incoming Transport Minister to focus on active transport to encourage the development of 15-minute neighbourhoods.