Create Gas-free
Healthy Homes

To: the Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Victorian Minister for Climate Action, Energy and Resources

cc: the Hon. Mary-Anne Thomas MP, Victorian Minister for Health & the Hon. Daniel Andrews MP, Premier of Victoria

Dear Minister D’Ambrosio,

The burning of gas in homes is threatening the health and wellbeing of Victorians and is contributing to catastrophic climate change. As health and community service workers, students and organisations we request that your government replace household gas with renewable-powered electricity urgently.

The Victorian Government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap [1] is a welcome step in the right direction, but currently lacks detail on the necessary timeframe for transition and assistance for Victorians on low incomes. We call on you to address these issues in the 2023 Roadmap update to reduce cost of living pressures and protect Victorians’ health and wellbeing.

Domestic gas use poses a range of direct and indirect risks to health, which many of us are witnessing in the communities we serve:

• Indoor pollution from gas appliances causes and exacerbates asthma and other illnesses and can even cause death [2].
  
  • Pollution from gas stoves has been estimated to account for 12% of the childhood asthma burden in Australia [3].
    
  • A child living in a house with a gas stove faces roughly a 30% increased risk of asthma [4]. This is comparable to a child living with household cigarette smoke [5,6].
    
  • Carbon monoxide poisoning from gas appliances is a well recognised and preventable cause of emergency department attendances [7] and has caused tragic fatalities [8].

• Rising gas prices are putting people’s physical and mental health at risk:
  
  • Many Australians are struggling to pay their energy bills, and this is more common among renters, people with low incomes and people with disabilities or chronic health conditions [9]. Last year Victorian wholesale gas prices more than doubled [10], increasing the risk of energy poverty for Victorians using gas.
    
  • When people cannot afford to maintain their homes at optimal temperatures they are more prone to both heat and cold-related illnesses, which already kill roughly 10,000 Australians every year [11-13].
    
  • People who struggle to pay their energy bills can limit their expenditure on food and medicines and can suffer significant mental health impacts from extreme temperatures and financial stress [14,15].
    
  • Overall, energy poverty is associated with poorer self-reported health in Australia [16].
    
  • Because electric reverse-cycle heating is cheaper than gas heating [17] and this price difference is projected to increase [18] it is urgent to assist Victorians, and particularly those most vulnerable, to switch from gas to electricity as soon as possible.

• The burning of gas is driving dangerous climate change. Victoria uses more gas than any other Australian state or territory and gas use accounts for approximately 17% of Victoria's greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Climate change is a health emergency that has become all too apparent to Australians in recent years due to devastating floods, bushfires and other extreme weather events. 

Households must be supported to switch from gas to electricity as soon as possible. Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse communities should be actively engaged in this process, and specific requirements must be set for rental properties. As a precedent, the Australian Capital Territory has already phased out gas connections to new homes [19]. We therefore request that you update the Victorian Gas Substitution Roadmap to include:

1. A commitment to no new gas connections to Victorian homes by 2025,
   
2. Means-tested financial assistance (e.g. direct subsidies, rebates and/or no-interest loans) for Victorians to replace their gas heaters, stoves and hot water systems with electric alternatives,
   
3. No further gas appliances to be offered through the Victorian Energy Upgrade Program after 2023,
   
4. A requirement for landlords to replace any gas appliances that fail after 2023 with energy-efficient electric alternatives,
   
5. Abolition of gas disconnection fees by the end of 2023, and
   
6. A commitment to replacing gas with electricity in all public housing and all public and government buildings, including proposed public housing such as the Commonwealth Games Village in Morwell.

We would welcome an opportunity to meet with you to discuss this further.

Sincerely,

[signatories]

References:

1. DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) 2022, Gas Substitution Roadmap, DELWP, Victorian Government, accessed 11 January 2023 via https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/renewable-energy/victorias-gas-substitution-roadmap
2. Ewald, B, Crisp, G & Carey, M 2022, ‘Health risks from indoor gas appliances’, Australian Journal of General Practice, vol. 51, no. 12, viewed 11 January 2023, https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2022/december/health-risks-from-indoor-gas-appliances
3. Knibbs, LD, Woldeyohannes, S, Marks, GB & Cowie, CT 2018, ‘Damp housing, gas stoves, and the burden of childhood asthma in Australia’, Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 208, no. 7, pp299-302, viewed 11 January 2023, https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/208/7/damp-housing-gas-stoves-and-burden-childhood-asthma-australia
4. Lin, W, Brunekreef, B & Gehring, U 2013, ‘Meta-analysis of the effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide and gas cooking on asthma and wheeze in children’, International Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 42, no. 6, pp1724–1737, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/ dyt150 
5. Jayes, L, Haslam, PL, Gratziou, CG, Powell, P, Britton, J, Vardavas, C, Jimenez-Ruiz, C, Leonardi-Bee, J, Dautzenberg, B, Lundbäck, B, Fletcher, M, Turnbull, A, Katsaounou, P, Heederik, D, Smyth, D, Ravara, S, Sculier, J-P, Martin, F & Orive, JIDG 2016, ‘SmokeHaz: systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the effects of smoking on respiratory health’, CHEST, vol. 150, no. 1, pp164–179, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2016.03.060
6. Vork, KL, Broadwin, RL & Blaisdell, RJ 2007, ‘Developing asthma in childhood from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke: insights from a meta-regression’, Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 115, no. 10, pp1394–1400, https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.10155
7. Zorbalar, N, Yesilaras, M & Aksay, E 2014, ‘Carbon monoxide poisoning in patients presenting to the emergency department with a headache in winter months’, Emergency Medicine Journal, vol. 31(e1):e66–70. doi: 10.1136/emermed-2012-201712
8. Coroners Court of Victoria 2013, Inquest into the death of Tyler Robinson, viewed 11 January 2023 at www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-12/tylerrobinson_203810.pdf
9. Bryant, D, Porter, E, Rama, I & Sullivan, D 2022, Power pain: an investigation of energy stress in Australia, accessed 11 January 2023 via https://www.bsl.org.au/research/publications/power-pain/
10. Australian Energy Regulator 2023, Victorian gas market average daily weighted prices by quarter, viewed 30 January 2023 at https://www.aer.gov.au/wholesale-markets/wholesale-statistics/victorian-gas-market-average-daily-weighted-prices-by-quarter
11. Cheng, J, Xu, Z, Bambrick, H, Su, H, Tong, S & Wenbiao, H 2019, ‘Impacts of health, cold and temperature variability on mortality in Australia, 2000-2009’, Science of the Total Environment, vol. 651, part 2, pp2558-2565, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.186
12. Gasparrini, A, Guo, Y, Hashizume, M, Lavigne, E, Zanobetti, A, Schwartz, J, Tobias, A, Tong, S, Rocklöv, J, Forsberg, B, Leone, M, De Sario, M, Bell, ML, Guo, YL, Wu, C, Kan, H, Yi, S, de Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coelho, M, Saldiva, PHN, Honda, Y, Kim, H & Armstrong, B 2015, ‘Mortality risk attributable to high and low ambient temperature: a multicountry observational study’, The Lancet, vol. 386, no. 9991, pp369-375, viewed 11 January 2023 at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62114-0/fulltext
13. ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2022) Deaths, Australia 2021, viewed 11 January 2023 at https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/deaths-australia/latest-release
14. Dignam, J & Barrett, B 2022, Cold and costly: Renter Researchers' Experiences of Winter 22, accessed 11 January 2023 via https://www.betterrenting.org.au/renter_researchers_winter_22
15. Porto Valente, C, Morris, A & Wilkinson, S 2021, ‘Energy poverty, housing and health: the lived experience of lower income Australians’, Building Research & Information, vol. 50, no. 1-2, pp16-18, https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.1968293 
16. Churchill, SA & Smyth, R 2021, ‘Energy poverty and health: panel data evidence from Australia’, Energy Economics vol. 97 [105219], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105219
17. Sustainability Victoria 2022, Calculate heating running costs, viewed 11 January 2023 at https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/energy-efficiency-and-reducing-emissions/save-energy-in-the-home/reduce-heating-costs-at-home/calculate-heating-costs
18. McLeod R 2022, Limiting energy bills by getting off gas: all-electric homes after the 2022 energy crisis, Renew Australia, accessed 11 January 2023 via https://renew.org.au/research/limiting-energy-bills-by-getting-off-gas/
19. ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Government 2022, Powering Canberra: our Pathway to Electrification, ACT Government, viewed 11 January 2023 at https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/open_government/inform/act_government_media_releases/barr/2022/powering-canberra-our-pathway-to-electrification