Page 3339 - Week 11 - Thursday, 11 November 2021
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purchases and interest-free loans of up to $15,000 to reduce the up-front cost of vehicles and, indeed, of home charging equipment. Canberrans will soon be able to use the Sustainable Household Scheme to purchase zero emission vehicles.
MS ORR: A supplementary. Chief Minister, can you update the Assembly on the progress of the Sustainable Household Scheme?
MR BARR: I thank Ms Orr for the question. The scheme is delivering real savings to households already. More than 2.2 megawatts of solar has already been installed. It is providing a boost to local industry, especially post the lockdown, with more than 100 businesses participating in the scheme so far.
Tracking indicates that over $1 million is being settled each fortnight, which is providing a significant business stimulus. As at 8 November, so in the last week, nearly 1,400 households had applied for a loan through the scheme, to the total value of $14.6 million in loan applications, 306 installations had been completed and more than 1,000 loans had been approved and are pending installation. The majority of the loans are for rooftop solar or for combined rooftop solar and battery systems. I can advise the Assembly that the first EV charger was installed through the scheme in the last fortnight.
Kingston arts precinct—delivery
MS CLAY: My question is to the Minister for the Arts. I am interested in the Kingston arts precinct, which is a major facility for arts, budgeted at around $78 million in capital over the next term—almost half of our entire arts budget. I asked a few questions about this in estimates on 29 October, but we did not get any foreshadowing of last week’s announcement to drop Geocon from the development. Why was the change made and when were decisions made?
MR BARR: As this relates to the Suburban Land Agency’s role in urban renewal it is a question for me. The changes were made because the board and the agency were unhappy, not satisfied, with the level of progress—the private sector partner had, in fact, not achieved and not reached the milestones that were in the contract in the tender. The change was a decision made by the board, as is appropriate.
Ms Clay may be aware that this will be the fifth stage of the Kingston Foreshore project, and stages 1 to 4 were delivered by the predecessor to the SLA, the Land Development Agency. The final decision in relation to seeking to exit the contract with the private sector partner was made during the course of this year, but obviously there is a degree of commercial sensitivity associated with it so it could not be foreshadowed until the final decision was made by the board.
MS CLAY: How will this change affect the development of the Kingston arts precinct and the time line?
MR BARR: It will mean the Suburban Land Agency will take charge of the next stages of the project. That particularly relates to concluding the consultations in relation to heritage matters and engagement with arts organisations. The work to date
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