Page 3686 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 2011
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whilst we are seeing, for example, electricity price rises here in the ACT, the ACT’s electricity prices are still the lowest in the country for an average household—the lowest in the country. ACT residents pay 40 per cent less than their New South Wales neighbours when it comes to electricity bills.
We recognise, of course, that any price movement upwards has an impact on low income households. That is exactly why the government has provided the additional concession support that it did in the most recent budget—the concession support that the Liberal Party opposed when it came to the vote in this place, the additional $131 per low income household that the Liberal Party opposed. It is on the record. They voted against it. Where is their credibility on the issue of addressing cost of living pressures?
Let us focus also on other practical measures that the government is undertaking to provide assistance to low income households. Of course, we provide assistance through a range of measures when it comes to transport. We provide transport assistance through measures such as the gold card scheme for free travel on public transport by senior citizens aged 75 or more. We provide assistance through the taxi subsidy scheme, which assists around 300 people with disabilities and older persons with their taxi fares. Over $1 million worth of subsidy was provided in the 2009-10 financial year.
I particularly want to focus on the assistance this government is providing for low income households to improve their energy efficiency, because energy efficiency measures actually save low income households money. They save them money, and they save significant amounts of money. In the most recent budget, the government provided $4.4 million over four years to expand its outreach program to low income households—both low income households in public and social housing and low income households in the private rental market. These measures, we anticipate, will save these low income households between $200 and $500 each year, on average, on their electricity and water bills. We anticipate that we will reach 4,000 low income households in both the social and public housing sector and in private rental to reduce their electricity and water bills by between $200 and $400 a year. When you put that on top of the more than $300 a year energy and water concession that the government is now providing as a maximum for those households, you are talking about savings of potentially close to $1,000 a year for those households in managing their electricity and water costs.
And who voted against this program? Who voted against the $4.4 million to expand the outreach program to help low income households improve their energy and water efficiency and save between $200 and $500 a year? The Liberal Party voted against it. The Liberal Party voted against a program that will save low income households between $200 and $500 a year on their water and electricity costs.
What does this program do? This program includes the retrofitting of rental properties with portable items such as better window fittings or window curtains so that they get better insulation and reduce heat loss and heat gain; measures such as water efficiency for toilets and showers to reduce hot-water costs and water use; and measures such as replacing old energy inefficient appliances such as fridges and washing machines,
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