Senator Lyn Allison recently questioned progress on moving from the Democrats negotiated Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Scheme (WELS) to setting national standards for water using appliances.
And the answers are encouraging and show that star rating labelling has given consumers the information they need to make sound choices. WELS has generated far more appliances in our shops in the upper rating bands and the Rudd Government says it will be consulting shortly on setting minimum standards. Products will include clothes washing machines, dishwashers, showers, taps, urinals, evaporative air conditioners, instantaneous gas HWS, domestic irrigation flow controllers and hot water recirculators.
The WELS was negotiated by the Democrats back in 2004 – one of a range of environment measures agreed to with funds ‘left over’ from the lubricating oil recycling scheme we negotiated in 1999.
It was always understood that the labelling scheme would be the first step in improving efficiency through standard setting and we are pleased with this outcome – a far more effective way of dealing with our current water shortage crisis than desalination plants!
We consider this a major win for sound environmental policy making and validation of our hard work in this area.
Read the full transcript of the questions and answers |
