Hansard debates

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (15:56): I rise to speak on the Building Legislation Amendment and Other Matters Bill 2024. Strap yourself in for the tradie hour, because I am a former plumber, and the member for Narracan who is to follow me is a builder, and we physically and mentally had to work through this legislation in our jobs. I think in the next little bit we might get a few fun facts that may come out about the building legislation and the other matters.

I would like to jump straight to clause 38. We have had people that have gone to this clause straight away and spoken about it. They were saying that the government is trying to shut down the gas industry, but I take this clause as worse. What they are doing is waging a war against plumbers and gasfitters, because written here in black and white in clause 38, which I will read out shortly, is the end of plumbers and gasfitters being able to do their jobs. I am not sure if the people who came up with this clause have realised that. We talk about unintended consequences that happen inside legislation. Well, one of these two clauses here will stop plumbers from being able to go out and repair or replace gas appliances or extend gas lines in people’s houses, and that is a travesty of justice. It does not matter the colour of your skin, your sexual preference or what religion you follow, if you are a plumber and gasfitter, the government has your days numbered. It is in black and white here, and I will read it out:

Clause 38 inserts new paragraphs (fa) and (fb) into section 221ZZZV(1) of the Building Act 1993, which provides that the Governor in Council may make regulations for or with respect to …

So a Governor will be able to change at any time some of these laws moving forward. The bill states:

(fa) prohibiting a person from connecting reticulated gas, or extending the capacity of an existing reticulated gas connection, to an existing building –

that is, your home, or it might be a shop down the street or a building under construction, or it might be a new house that is being built, a new dwelling for people to move into –

… or to a building in a class of existing building or a class of building under construction …

That is the first one. So you are thinking to yourself, ‘Well, I’m going to be forced, if this comes along, not to have gas at my house, because I’m not going to be able to extend the gas lines, to put new appliances in or to replace appliances if it comes through.’

The member for Melton said before that at the end of life of an appliance you can actually make a choice and get an electric hot-water service. Well, that is fine, but today there would be a couple of hundred hot-water services, gas hot-water services, that would have blown up around the state. If we have these couple of hundred hot-water services blowing up around the state and we are relying on our electricians to come to our house to install the new power supply and put the new hot-water service in, there is going to be a backlog in doing it. So we do need the capacity to be able to replace a gas hot-water service as such if it explodes, because it does make it very hard if people have to wait for the time frame to get an electrician out. As I said, as I read that out, the plumbing and gasfitting industry is going to be under siege because of these amendments from this government.

Paragraph (fb), the second one:

prohibiting a person from carrying out plumbing work …

That would be people like me in connection with installing or replacing reticulated gas appliances. That is that hot-water service that I just spoke about, or your central heater. In the next while, when this comes in after the government has the opportunity to bring in these amendments when we vote on it later on today, it means we will not be able to go and replace your gas central heating unit or your gas oven or your gas hotplates, because it says here:

prohibiting a person from carrying out plumbing work in connection with installing or replacing a reticulated gas appliance or a reticulated gas appliance in a class of … a building under construction or in a building in a class of existing building or a class of building under construction …

It is saying it there in black and white. Why is the government hell-bent on stitching up the poor old plumber and gasfitter? If something goes wrong and your toilet blocks or you have got a blockage, who are you going to ring? You call the plumber, he comes out and you get him to clear that blockage, but when it comes to someone that has spent years learning the gas trade and is specialised in this area, they are fixing them up, and it is just not fair. I am not sure if it is an unintended consequence from the people that come up with the legislation, but that is how it reads, that is really how it reads.

Plumbers and gasfitters jobs are going to be maybe a thing of the past in the gas industry. You have only got to look around. We heard before about businesses in manufacturing that need gas to burn at a high temperature to produce everything that they are producing and is probably going into the Big Build of Melbourne at the moment – to make all the steel cages to go into the foundations. They are relying on the gas-fired burners to actually provide that energy source so they can do it. We need to take a step back and reassess what the government is trying to achieve here.

Who is going to be next? Is it going to be the builders that are going to be picked on next? Because they have started on the poor old plumber, a tradie who is out there trying to do an honest day’s work and do the right thing by his community right around regional Victoria. At the moment most homes rely on gas. I think everybody in the chamber here, if they talk to their constituents around their areas, would know they are relying on gas as an affordable alternative at the moment to keep themselves warm, to be able to have hot water come out of the taps so they can have a shower and also as a cooking source.

As soon as this jumps on and we cannot actually renew some of these gas appliances when they break down or when we cannot extend gas lines to the current appliances, I wonder what happens – and it does happen a lot – when the actual pipes break down and you have a gas leak at your house. You ring up APA and they say, ‘Get yourself a plumber. We’ve come out and it’s the plumber’s role’ and the plumber ascertains, ‘You’ve got a gas leak here, but I need to re-purpose and refit the gas line from the front of the house down to the back of the house. No, no, no – I can’t do that because it says here that you cannot actually extend gas services down to run these gas appliances.’ Where does it lie? It is going to be the plumber whose licence is going to be on the line, who has to sign off with a certificate of compliance. Are we going to be held accountable for saying to the poor old person that needs to have that gas line fixed, ‘Oh, sorry, you’re going to have to ring the electrician and get them to come in and actually redo your whole house,’ because under here, in these amendments, we are not going to be allowed to do that.

It really worries me where it is all going. What about the kids? We talked about barbecues before. What about the poor old kids that want to go to Bunnings or Barbecues Galore to buy their dear old dad the gas barbecue for Father’s Day? Well, I am sorry, kids, the government has got you in the scope too, to not let you go and do that: ‘No, Dad, sorry, you can’t cook your barbecue. We can’t have the sausages out there on a great night.’ The member for Melton and I, sitting back watching the Hawks have another win next year, will not be able to do that with our gas-fired barbecue because it says here in the legislation that we are not going to be able to do that. Here we go – poor old kids, you are under the gun too.

We have got plumbers and gas fitters of all persuasions, people who have worked their backsides off for years to become licensed to do that, in the gun. As a former plumber I am shocked that the government could actually come up with amendments that are going to make their lives harder and harder. I am sure, moving forward, there are going to be other people who are going to come into the gun of the government over this.

It is building legislation. We want to take the gas part out. That is what the member for Brighton has suggested that we do, and I stand with him and say: let us get that gas bit out.