Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that for reasons known only to them, the Queensland Department of Mines has for many years been at the forefront of crusade against the introduction of natural and especially hydrocarbon refrigerants into the mainstream refrigeration and air conditioning. Queensland is the only state in Australia seeing the need to regulate the use of hydrocarbons in HVACR systems without a shred of evidence to justify their heavy-handed and completely unnecessary legislation. Hydrocarbons have been widely used in every state and territory for almost 25 years with excellent safety record.

NSW Shopping centres report savings of over $1million/pa in energy bills using Hydrocarbon refrigerants. Many report savings of between 27% up to 50% by installing Australian approved Hydrocarbon appliances which are safe and emit 3,300% less CO2 Pollutants/10kg compared to current refrigerants.

ln 2004 the Department of Mines usurped their power and introduced the regulation with the only objective to restrict the use of hydrocarbon refrigerants in Queensland. Pensioners and families are paying unnecessary energy costs simply because the Queensland Government has legislation that fails the reasonability test.

The Queensland Department of Mines has never conducted or published any serious, empirical, data-based study to justify the regulation they have imposed on hydrocarbon use.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to call on Government and the Queensland Department of Mines to bring their legislation on hydrocarbon use in line with every other Australian State and territory and stop the energy rip-off of everyday Queenslanders.