The government giveth, and the government taketh away

Think it through. The wealthy inner-city resident in their $2m plus town home or apartment has no access to a hills hoist to dry their clothes, and is unlikely to worry about leaving the lights on when not in a room, or running the air con on a semi-permanent basis. Long showers are not a problem either. They can afford it.

So how can an increase in energy code requirements that will most affect lower priced homes favoured by young families on lower incomes make any discernible difference to the biggest energy and water wasters? It won't. By applying only to new builds and ignoring the majority of the market, particularly those households in established dwellings in inner urban areas, this is a highly distorted and regressive policy which ultimately favours the inner urban wealthy and penalises the suburban working- and middle-class families.

If we were genuinely concerned about reducing household energy use, we'd wake up to the fact that buildings don't consume the energy or the water: it is the habits of the occupants that drive that.

So celebrate while you can the increase in the first home buyer grant because from May next year it's going to be worth nothing thanks to new energy codes for buildings which don't even touch the biggest energy consumers but which will make new detached homes for families even more expensive, for no environmental gain.