By Tina Perinotto 3 April 2012 – The states and territories capacity for strategic planning and report card against key performance criteria are neither uniformly good or bad. There are some high achievers in some areas that could be good exemplars for other jurisdictions, but overall there is huge room for improvement. None of this is surprising. The assessment is from the Council of Australian Governments Reform Council’s Review of Capital Cities Strategic Planning Systems. Read More  
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27 January 2012 – The case against wind farms on health grounds took a dramatic step backwards this week after Freedom of Information documents obtained by Friends of the Earth slammed claims that wind turbines are bad for local residents’ health. The Climate and Health Alliance also this week rejected claims of anti-wind farm groups that wind power poses a health threat. Read More  
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20 January 2012 – Australia’s energy, transport and telecommunications infrastructure could well do with a new national body to co-ordinate greater resilience to climate change, a new government report has found. The report, The Role of Regulation in Facilitating or Constraining Adaptation to Climate Change for Australian Infrastructure, specifically targeted gaps in the regulatory environment around these infrastructure items, created before climate change was considered a serious threat. The report, which will feed into the Productivity  Commission’s current investigations into climate change adaptation, has been developed by Maddocks Solicitors Read More  
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By Michael Mobbs 20 January 2012 When Somalia’s political system collapsed the country had no government. The government collapsed after a 2006 US-backed Ethiopian invasion. There was no one to issue fishing licences, to control national or international fishing. Read More  
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1 December 2011 – A Climate Commission report released on Wednesday predicts that without rapid action climate change will undermine society’s prosperity, health, stability and way of life and to minimise this risk the economy should move to clean energy sources by 2050. That means carbon emissions must peak within the next few years and then strongly decline. The main messages in the report, The Critical Decade:Climate Change and Health are: There is no doubt that the climate is changing. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 17 November 2011 – Does it sound strange that we are still reviewing NABERS? The energy (and other environmental metric) rating system that started out so long ago is currently being re-reviewed, this time by the Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating. Separately, however, it is also under review by the Property Council of Australia and in another work, by AIRAH, to see if elements such as its energy modelling can be harmonised with the Green Star rating tool and the Building Code of Australia, Section J in particular. Wow. Yes, we’ve had reviews of NABERS before. Some of the inconsistencies in the methodology have been fixed and the star rating moved up a notch to six stars. But it seems there is more to do. This time NABERS stakeholders’ advisory committee has asked AIRAH to do the impartial technical thing. (Instead of the heavy handed political thing that has the practioners perplexed). Chief executive officer of AIRAH Phil... 
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NABERS is under review. Again. This time the Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating, has been appointed to undertake the work by the NABERS stakeholders’ advisory committee. Chief executive officer Phil Wilkinson said the work would complement the review already undertaken but hopefully bring a more technical and impartial view to the process given that his members are generally the engineering consultants who undertake the NABERS assessments. An online feedback template is available here http://fs12.formsite.com/philairahorgau/form13/index.html  
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2 November 2011 – Climate Change minister Greg Combet and Energy Efficiency minister  Mark Dreyfus have released consultation draft regulations to support the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units. “The Registry will be used to track Australian carbon credit units generated under the Carbon Farming Initiative and Kyoto units issued under the Kyoto Protocol,” the ministers said. “It will also be the Registry for carbon units issued under the carbon pricing mechanism.” “Using the same Registry for different programs will allow people to open a single account and take advantage of diverse opportunities.” Mr Dreyfus confirmed the regulations would enable the effective administration of the Registry, setting out requirements for opening accounts and dealing with Kyoto units. Comments on the draft regulations will be taken into consideration when finalising the regulations. Public submissions are due by 14 November 2011. Details www.climatechange.gov.au/cfi. For... 
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20 October 2011 – The federal government’s latest installment of the yearly report, State ofAustralian Cities 2011, released today, devoted significant space to sustainability issues. Read More  
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By Lynne Blundell 12 October 2011 ­ The Productivity Commission report on Australia’s urban water sector, released today (Wednesday), recommends a range of reforms, including improved performance of institutions, more transparent and consistent regulations and competitive procurement of supply and pricing. The report follows a year-long inquiry established to consider the case for further reform in the sector. Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water Don Farrell said the benefit of these reforms are expected to flow to consumers and communities. As Australian cities continue to grow Read More  
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By Lyn Drummond 4 October 2011 – While young families look for house size and type, older and single-person households are more likely to think the characteristics of where they live are more important, a survey by The Grattan Institute on housing preferences shows. Having a garden, being close to work or even being near schools were not in the top 15 “must-haves” of most people, compared to the higher priorities of being near to family and nearby amenities. As the population ages and household size decreases, there will be marked shifts in the mix of housing that people want  says the report “What matters most ? housing preferences across Australia “ by Ben Weidmann and Jane-Frances Kelly. The survey of 700 Melbourne and Sydney residents is an extension to Grattan’s report The Housing We’d Choose Read More  
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By Lyn Drummond 20 September 2011 – A survey of green office buildings has shown they are almost twice as energy efficient compared to the Read More  
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By Leon Gettler 22 September 2011 – A top level report has recommended a radical overhaul of Australia’s electricity rules to speed up the adoption of cogeneration and trigeneration, creating more greener buildings around the country. Australia already has a few state of the art commercial buildings Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 11August 2011 – Comment: The Productivity Commission again took a stick to zoning issues with its draft retail report released last Thursday on 4 August, recommending, among other things, that the retail industry would be more competitive and presumably create lower prices if it relaxed restrictions on where shops could locate. Read More  
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18 July 2011 – A series of forums that sets out to redesign inner city Adelaide is currently under way and just one of a number of initiatives stimulated by the appointment in 2008 of Adelaide Thinker in Residence Laura Lee. Professor Lee’s report on her term as Thinker, “ Read More  
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9 June 2011 – The Productivity Commission on Thursday released a report that reveals the extent of climate action in key economies and sectors. The results suggests it’s time for Australia to wake up, climate and green groups say. The report, Carbon Emission Policies in Key Economies was commissioned by The Australian Government “help it, and the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, assess the extent to which key economies are taking action to address climate change,” the report says. Australian Greens deputy leader Christine Milne, said the “inescapable conclusion” was that “all countries had seen the need to support sunrise industries like renewable energy directly at the same time as pricing pollution, and some have achieved this more efficiently than others. “The Commission has, however, fallen into the trap of only measuring the effectiveness of policies in terms of how much they cut pollution in the short term, ignoring the fact that many of... 
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By Tina Perinotto 20 April 2011 – Updated: The federal government has axed the $1billion tax breaks for green buildings program from the coming budget and put it up for consultation for 12 months after a storm of protests from the property industry about its design. The Energy Efficiency Council  said the move would damage the emerging retrofit industry and cost money and jobs while electricity prices skyrocketed because of spending on “poles and wires”. EEC chief executive officer Rob Murray-Leach  called for funds from the scheme to be urgently diverted to the now closed green building fund. “Improving the efficiency of Australia’s offices, Read More  
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By Lyn Drummond 20 April 2011 – Market mechanisms reduces emissions most effectively and cheaply, a report by the policy think tank, The Grattan Institute has found. Three market-based schemes have produced 40 per cent of Australia’s emissions reductions since Australia signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 – once the one-off ban on land clearing is excluded. The report, Learning the hard way: Australian policies to reduce carbon emissions names the three schemes as the Renewable Energy Target, the NSW and ACT Governments’ Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme and the Queensland Government’s Gas Electricity Target. The three set mandatory targets for emissions reduction, or use of particular energy sources that electricity retailers must meet through purchasing tradeable certificates or permits. Together, they will have delivered more than 40 per cent of Australia’s emissions reductions in 14 years –the greatest amount of reductions among policies introduced by Federal and State governments... 
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By Tina Perinotto 19 April 2011 – Property industry lobbyist Caryn Kakas was among the long line up of people today announced by the Gillard Government to sit on the Land Sector Working Group to examine the benefits and opportunities for the land sector under a carbon price. Ms Kakas, who is executive director of the Residential Development Council, part of the Property Council of Australia,  told The Fifth Estate that she would act as representative for the Property Council on the group and explore the possibilities for property owners who may want to offset their carbon emissions with land based activities. “There are opportunities in land that a lot of broader companies have looked at, in terms of  how to lessen their impact on the environment,” Ms Kakas said. Issues of particular importance would be the potential for bio-banking, which exchanges protected land for development land, and offsets around landcare. Read More  
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Leon Gettler 24 March 2100  – A centre-piece of the ALP campaign in last year’s election was its promise of $1 billion in tax breaks for businesses on investments in energy-saving measures for commercial building, one of a number of climate change announcements designed to fill the gap left by shelving the emissions trading scheme until 2013. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 21 January 2011 – The federal government has released a consultation paper on the tax breaks for green buildings program which will be worth up to $1 billion. It has even provided a handy set of questions as a starting point for ironing out how things might work in practice. Closing date for submissions is 18 February. Consultation information sessions will be held in major cities: Read More  
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By Lyn Drummond 19 January 2011 – With some economists putting a figure of $20 billion on the Queensland flood damage, the terms of reference for the state government’s Commission of Inquiry has already come under fire for not being broad enough. The Federal Government has also established a business taskforce to mobilise flood recovery efforts. Architects are concerned that a preferred system of designing and building resilient homes is essential in the terms of reference and will submit proposals. (See our report ) Queensland Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek’s criticism that the inquiry lacked the ability to examine issues outside its specific terms was disputed on the ABC this week when Premier Anna Bligh said the terms of reference “go to every aspect of the management of this disaster.” Queensland inquiry’s terms of reference The Queensland Commission of Inquiry’s panel of three is headed by Queensland Justice Cate Holmes with Deputy Commissioners Jim O’Sullivan,... 
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By Lyn Drummond 19 January 2011 – Architects will propose to the Queensland government that building design be considered in its terms of reference for its Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland floods, as industry bodies respond to the crisis. According to the chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of Architects David Parken a preferred system of designing and building resilient homes is essential in the terms of reference. The interim report is due in August this year and due to be released by January, 2012. Mr Parken was not prepared to comment on what a preferred design could be at this point, but said any preferences for the traditional Queenslander house on stilts did not hold weight when there were instances of these homes being swept off their footings by the water. Read More  
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By Tina Perinotto 2 December 2010 – The federal government yesterday released the most important document in national urban planning since the Whitlam years – a discussion paper on options for how to manage growth and sustainability for Australia’s biggest urban centres. The paper met with widespread approval from much of the mainstream development industry but might be set for some serious kickback from the residential land development lobby for its stance against greenfield development, for instance. There might even be opposition from the new Victorian Government following controversial comments by incoming premier Ted Baillieu that his government would immediately release more greenfields land for housing Read More  
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13 December 2010 - [Updated] Cancun is over. Was Cop 16 a success? Here are the views of a few leading players and observers: Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet Mr Combet said the main points of the outcome at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun were: For the first time an anchoring under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of the pledges made by developed and developing countries in the Copenhagen Accord. This is important because it provides an agreed pathway to achieve major emissions cuts. This is the first time that all major emitters have agreed to report to the world community their commitments and efforts to reduce carbon pollution in their own economies The establishment of a new Green Climate Fund to help developing countries deal with climate change A mechanism that will deliver economic opportunities for developing countries to reduce emissions that result from deforestation – one of the largest sources of global emissions New... 
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By Tina Perinotto 12 December 2010 - A raft of built environment organisations, professionals, academics and corporations has signed an open letter to call for bi-partisan support for urban policy, in the hope that political rivalries will not kill off the first signs of emerging national urban agenda in decades. The coalition of signatories is also concerned at the oversimplification of planning issues into a case of greenfield development versus infill. The federal government this month released Our Cities – building a productive, sustainable and liveable future discussion paper – in a huge step towards the importance of national framework for cities not seen since the 1970s. The irony is the timing. The federal Labour Government could soon face its political opponents in all the major states; WA and Victoria are already Coalition states and NSW and Queensland could soon follow. The prospect has alarmed built environment professionals at a time of increasing politicisation... 
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26 November 2010 – Business leaders meeting today in the first sitting of the  Business Roundtable on Climate Change said there was a need for a carbon price to support long-term investment. Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet said the meeting set the ground rules for how the Roundtable would operate and how members would  advise the government about options for putting a price on carbon. A media statement from the two ministers said: “Members discussed a range of issues, including the need to engage business and the broader community, the need to draw on the experiences of previous policy development, and the fact that achieving even a five per cent emissions reduction against 2000 levels will involve a significant restructuring of the economy. “While there may be slow progress in international negotiations, the reality is that many countries are acting to reduce their emissions.  Early movers will reap... 
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By Tina Perinotto 23 November 2010 -The race to outperform on  sustainability is back on with today’s announcement that the NABERS Energy rating for office buildings would be “stretched” to six or even seven stars. NABERS manager the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water today confirmed the move, which was  first flagged in The Fifth Estate on 23 October. Read More  
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8 October 2010 – Following are highlights of reactions to the Report b the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency The Greens: The Gillard government should move ahead immediately with energy efficiency policies which cut household and business costs while reducing our impact on the climate. The recommendations appear to be largely in line with Greens policies, though not as ambitious. They include a national energy efficiency target scheme, removal of the Fringe Benefits Tax Concession which rewards driving longer distances and a form of efficiency standard for light vehicles. “Energy efficiency is such a no-brainer that it is baffling that successive governments have allowed Australia to fall so far behind the world. It’s time to catch up,” Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said. “I will be encouraging Minister Combet to act on the recommendations of this report as fast as possible whilst continuing progress towards a carbon price. “In... 
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25 August 2010 – The NSW Government’s Solar Bonus Scheme will undergo a performance review after it reached its first milestone capacity of 50 megawatts. NSW Minister for Energy Paul Lynch said that the important terms of the Scheme, such as its length and the tariff rate, were locked into legislation. “If any changes are to be proposed, the legislation would need to be amended and we are on the record stating that any changes would not be applied retrospectively,” Mr Lynch said. “That means no customers who have already entered the Scheme will be affected by the review,” he said. Public submissions for the review will be received before 30 September, with the review to be tabled in Parliament towards the end of its next session. A further review of the Scheme will be undertaken by the Auditor-General early next year. The Total Environment Centre has praised the success of the Scheme with over 30,000 households taking part in the program so far. Executive director of TEC... 
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