Cooking without gas a hot topic in Canberra

Canberra’s plan to be the first city to be completely electric is going too far too fast, according to business leaders in the nation’s capital.

Shannon Battisson and children Angus, 9, and Madeleine, 10, in their electrified Canberra home. Picture: Gary Ramage

Canberra’s plan to be the first city to be completely electric is going too far too fast, according to business leaders in the nation’s capital concerned about restricting consumer choice and workforce impacts.

The Housing Industry of Australia and Master Plumbers Association have raised concern with “the speed” of the Australian Capital Territory’s plan to go totally electric by 2045, starting with regulation to prevent new gas connections by the end of the year. “If we move away from gas for … those products in a home, that is not insignificant,” HIA’s commercial and operations deputy managing director Kristin Brookfield said. “ There’s a cohort of tradespeople who will be having the thing they do taken away. It’s the government’s responsibility to have an orderly transition and think about the workforce. “

MPA president Jason Tait said there was a “lack of detail” over the plan to electrify the ACT, with no adequate workforce modelling yet available. He raised concern over the cost to those left on the network as parts of the territory transitioned off gas.

However, the electrification plan has proved popular for ACT residents including architect Shannon Battisson, who ensured everything in her home was electrified from the hot water system, stovetop and heating the pool.

At a build price of $800,000, Ms Battisson said her gasless home – which is based in Denman Prospect where solar panels are mandatory – was “not cheap” but delivered savings in energy bills and was healthier for her children, who both had asthma.

“I was really hesitant at first to give up the gas stove, because what I liked about gas cooking was the speed at which you can control it,” she said. “It’s instant with gas and I was not convinced it would be the same with induction. But we decided to give it a go and we’ve never looked back.

“ It was a mindset change that was the biggest thing. As a community, we have to learn to cook a different way.”

While she recognised it was “a difficult time to try to make a massive change” for many Australians and businesses facing dire economic circumstances, Ms Battisson believed it was “now or never” for the task of electrifying the country. It comes ahead of the Albanese government revealing the full details of an “electrification package” in its May budget, agreed to in order to gain the Greens’ support for its energy package last year.

The ACT government confirmed a consultation paper into the scope of future regulation would be released in the first half of the year, before coming into force in late 2023. The new regulations would prohibit new gas connections for certain types of developments, such as greenfield residences.

ACT Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee said the party held concerns over how the plan to electrify the territory would be implemented and indicated it would not allow regulation blocking new gas connections to be “rushed through” the Legislative Assembly.