Clarissa Bye: BASIX ‘green tape’ rules in NSW increase cost of homes but benefits unclear

A sneaky war on gas cooking, home water tanks that don’t work and attacks on wood fires – green tape is invading our homes, writes Clarissa Bye.

We had a party at our home recently for my husband’s birthday. It should have been held last year but the draconian lockdowns got in the way.

The theme was the 1960s, in honour of the decade in which he was born. A few weeks before we visited a discount party supply shop at Bankstown and I had to physically remove a fluoro wig from him.

“No, it does you no favours,” I said, in no uncertain terms.

Later, on the day of the party, he dashed to the shops again with one of our daughters and I texted her a warning about not letting him buy strange wigs.

Naturally, he ignored this and donned a smuggled Monkees wig that raised eyebrows.

Everyone loves the social ambience of a good fire.

But it was a good talking point, along with everybody else’s outfits — which was needed, as there were many friends from different walks of life, who either didn’t know one another or hadn’t seen each other for a long time.

Another popular focal point for guests was a pit fire in our back garden, tended by my son. And later in the evening, people gathered and talked around our wood-fired heater in the basement den.

Firewood has become a scarce commodity in many parts of Germany. Picture: Getty Images

Despite all our modern gadgets, everybody’s naturally drawn to a fire.

And our old wood heater has saved us on power bills this winter, as my husband worked from home. It has the added bonus of helping clear some of the endless gum tree branches that fall in our backyard.

At least there’s no remote control switch on the fire, where governments can dial up or down the temperature, like they did with home airconditioning in Colorado in the US a few weeks ago.

Thousands of customers, who had signed a cheaper energy deal giving control to the supplier, couldn’t turn their dials down to colder because of an “energy emergency”.

Gas cooking is under pressure from new anti-gas energy policies. Picture: AAP

Here in Australia, the energy regulator has been working for years on smart meter trials, to test override your controls with things like “Smart Thermostats” on air conditioners, in times of high demand.

And we’re also lucky we’re not in Germany, where the green religion has led to an energy crisis, where families are collecting brushwood for their own fires to keep warm and the demand for wood-burning stoves has doubled.

So far NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean hasn’t banned my wood heater yet, but I’m not holding my breath.

The green bureaucrats in the government last year came up with a 10-year clean air strategy to “reduce public exposure to residential wood smoke”.

After The Daily Telegraph revealed their plans, Mr Kean denied he was trying to get rid of wood fires and stoves.

But when you read the full strategy, it states that planning measures will cut wood heater usage by supporting “clean and efficient technologies such as reverse cycle airconditioning”.

Cash will be given to householders and — ominously — “regulatory measures to deliver long-term and widespread wood smoke emission reductions” will come in.

And now Mr Kean has announced more restrictions on renovating and building new homes under zealous Net Zero targets.

Higher “thermal performance” will be needed to approve new homes or renovations over $50,000.

I’m guessing my wood-fired heater won’t win any points, despite being fuelled by renewable gum tree branches.

What’s worse is the sneaky war on gas.

Switzerland is among the world's wealthiest countries, but its reliance on Russian gas and French nuclear power – both in short supply – has it bracing for power shortages. Picture: AFP

The government’s explanatory brochure has an example of a home with a gas cooktop and gas oven, which would now pass under current BASIX rules.

Their next example is a house under the stricter regime, which “includes all electric appliances to meet the higher BASIX standards”.

No gas in sight.

The third example has a gas cooktop but not a gas oven. And to be allowed even that requires solar panels, to create enough points to offset it. So, if you happen to live in the shadow of a block of flats and can’t get solar, give up on gas?

It’s diabolical. Gas is wonderful. I love cooking with gas. I could never go back to electric.

I don’t know why the gas industry isn’t making a song and dance about its death by a thousand cuts. In the socialist ACT, the left-wing government has announced it will ban new gas connections next year. Where are the protests?

I have solar panels but they don’t generate much. Too many of those nearby gum trees.

My panels also need to be cleaned again and have become less efficient as they age. On top of that, my feed-in tariff has just been cut from 11 cents to seven cents.

Under the new green BASIX rules it will cost $7152 extra for a new home. Bureaucrats calculate you’ll save $1070 a year on energy bills if you live in Western Sydney.

That’s almost seven years before you’re back to square one.

A water tank installed for a granny flat in Sydney's south, under BASIX regulations.

My family has already gone down the torturous path of fulfilling BASIX rules for a granny flat. To get the final tick of approval, my father-in-law had to pay for an expensive and totally useless water tank, that now sits like a green elephant on a rock in our garden.

It doesn’t have enough pressure to operate his washing machine. It doesn’t even have enough pressure to hose most of the garden.

In fact, every time there’s a wild storm, the tank overflows against the side of the granny flat, forcing him to run out at 2am and direct an overflow hose into a nearby drain.

With the growing green tape being imposed on households, it feels like the party’s over. The government’s full of Daydream Believers, hopelessly devoted to their Renewable Dream.

But it’s as phony and unreliable as that wig my husband wore, concealing an ageing and thinning electricity grid that needs more coal-fired power plants.

Originally published as Clarissa Bye: BASIX ‘green tape’ rules in NSW increase cost of homes but benefits unclear