Page 2382 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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there is an additional rebate if you are removing a heater and putting a reverse-cycle air system in. Depending on what you put in, you will get a different rebate.
Also the recently announced Sustainable Household Scheme, which will offer zero interest loans of between $2,000 and $15,000 to support eligible households to live more comfortably, will also provide mechanisms for people to replace their woodfire heaters.
MR PARTON: Minister, why is the demand for woodfire heaters steadily increasing, despite the measures that you have outlined?
MS VASSAROTTI: I thank the member for the question. We have had some reports that there is an increase in woodfired heaters. Certainly, there might be a number of things driving this. The really good news is, particularly in relation to new woodfired heaters, because of the very stringent regulations, there is a much reduced impact on the environment and health if people are putting in a new woodfired heater. We will continue to work through a range of education programs in terms of encouraging people to look at other forms of heating that are better for the environment and do not impact on health.
Light rail—traffic planning
MR MILLIGAN: My question is to the Minister for Transport and City Services. In relation to light rail stage 2A construction, you said:
That’s going to mean a significant amount of congestion that our city probably hasn’t seen before in its history.
In another statement you suggested that much of the traffic would be diverted from Commonwealth Avenue to Kings Avenue and Parkes Way. Minister, how can you tell the public to use these roads when they are already at a standstill, in peak times particularly?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his question. Commonwealth Avenue, we have been very clear, will probably see an 80 per cent reduction in its use, and that is because people will choose to use other roads to get more quickly into the city. Parkes Way will be a major one of those, as well as Kings Avenue. We are looking very closely at what improvements can be made to Parkes Way as part of the work of the disruption task force as well as other road improvements in the network to make sure we can reduce travel times and deal with the capacity issues.
We expect there to be more vehicles in peak times on those roads, and that is why we are looking at behaviour change as well, so spreading out the peak, spreading out the volume of traffic using those roads so that we are not seeing everyone using them at exactly the same time. As I have outlined very comprehensively to this place, that work is ongoing. We will make further announcements down the track. But in the longer term we are looking at Parkes Way very closely. Of course, with the federal government funding fifty-fifty, we are looking at what future improvements need to be made to Parkes Way generally as our city grows. It is a major east-west corridor in
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