Two months ago, GAMAA celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. It was a night remembering “50 years of gas magic” and the magician who performed throughout the evening almost stole the show. The big moment, however, was the panel of four people who played a significant role in GAMAA’s past. Founding member Harold Seeley was joined by former corporate secretary David Whiting, past Councillor Garry Hannon and the star of the GAMAA Victoria Chapter activity Dawn Carey. They recalled some of the banner moments in GAMAA development, including those humorous events that everyone enjoyed.

If was fun for everyone to remember the “simpler times” when GAMAA interacted with Gas & Fuel, the Australian Gas Association and other industry groups as a support organisation. It supported the initiatives of these organisations and sponsored different events to highlight their membership in the gas Industry. Their profile was a low one that did not often initiate major activity but rather supported what the much larger industry organisations initiated. Until four years ago, that was enough of an agenda for a smaller trade association.

The industry began major change when Gas Utilities were privatised into a number of new companies. Then the big change occurred in 2004 when The Australian Gas Association was downsized to its certification activity and joined the Electricity Supply Association of Australia to form the Energy Networks Association. That left the gas industry with no organisation that oversaw the general welfare of gas appliance manufacturers and for that matter, the gas Industry as a whole. That is when GAMAA stepped up to expand its role to represent its members to all publics, including legislators and regulators.

The organisation quickly discovered that there were many issues confronting its members that needed its attention. Within one year, GAMAA became an issues driven organization The pace of issues has been expanding every year since then.

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Today, GAMAA is working hard to develop minimum energy performance standards with the Australian Greenhouse Office that are fair and reasonable. This involves working on several AGO committees and task forces. The current focus of attention is on water heaters and GAMAA has both a policy task force and a technical task force working on those standards. They are also committed to developing an energy rating scheme to aid the public in selecting water heating appliances.

Also on GAMAA’s agenda is the means of establishing one uniform gas appliance safety standard for the entire Country. There are currently variations in the state gas safety standards which makes it difficult for manufacturers to produce a consistent product at a reasonable price throughout the nation.

GAMAA is also concerned that gas appliance safety standards continue to be established on a timely basis through an established standards organization. Recent developments at Standards Australia have caused concern that the flow of standards development has slowed.

In all, GAMAA continues to expand its role in protecting and promoting gas appliances. It has joined other Industry groups to form coalitions on specific matters. It is also committed to working to increase the demand for gas appliances. With the support of its members, the organisation looks forward to the next 50 years.