Energy star is obviously a JOKE! "When you buy your next home, INSIST on an "Energy Star" home - one with crappy dishwashers that can only heat their water to 100ºF when using a cold supply, to help save energy!"
We just have a "stars" system, which, whilst somewhat misleading in the refrigerator and television department (because of different styles or technology, the scale is different), it works better than "Energy Star Rated" products. Our energy labels state how much energy is used each when a product is used in certain conditions - water wise, electricity wise, gas wise, we get the generic 'star rating" and the actual consumption figure, which is what I always look at - since for fridges, the scale for the stars is different (a 6 star side by side fridge is less efficient than en equal capacity upside-down model)
I'll make an assumption here and say that most Australians have a style of storage water heating. But since our energy departments have always encouraged "washing in cold water' (Yes, even though most of us use Solar heated water), or connecting dishwashers to cold water (not mentioned, actually), the only hot water used might be by manual dishwashers or for your own bathing purposes - so we waste money heating say 300L of water, where the most used is generally only 150L for the worst shower offenders!
With many FL machines heating their water I think people in the US should insist [that horrible again] to the substandard local product manufacturers that their machines be able to take COLD incoming water - since many houses today I bet are built with water heater on the other end of the planet (just about, anyway!)
Or maybe, you could just buy European models which heat their own water. I know the Asko machines wouldn't get a good water rating here (base model, anyway), since it uses 16L for the "government" test cycle (Prewash, Wash, 2 Rinses) and 18L for the Normal "High Temp Option" cycle with 2 pre washes, but european's know how to do things the right way, the first time (no offence to Americans, but your Dishwashers really are "lagging behind the times")
Thats all I have to say... Whether people agree or not is their opinion. Personally, dishwasher's should be connected to hot water where it is heated in a environmentally friendly manner (solar, heat pump, geothermal or maybe gas), otherwise, give it a cold connection!