Page 3500 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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It is promising to see that funding for carbon neutrality in ACT schools will be boosted over the next four years. However, it is unclear whether this is sufficient to meet the 2017 target, due to a lack of data on schools’ energy use and emissions. We understand that plans to roll out energy monitoring and measuring devices are currently underway as part of the government’s implementation of the sustainability data management system. We would encourage the acceleration of the rollout of this system in the schools, given their important educational role.
I turn to energy efficiency. We were very pleased to see the energy efficiency improvement scheme finally come to fruition in this term of government; it has been something that we have supported for some time. Between 2013-14 and 2015-16 the scheme will deliver marked bill savings and emissions reductions, stimulating much-needed transformations in the ACT energy efficiency market. We will be keeping a close eye on the scheme’s rollout from January 2013, particularly to ensure that the measures implemented deliver the impressive energy and greenhouse reductions anticipated.
On the topic of public housing energy efficiency, we are somewhat less impressed. With a level of funding of only $2 million per year for the next three years, we will see Housing ACT take over 20 years to reach a minimum of a three-star energy rating for Housing ACT properties. Investing in energy efficiency is the most cost-effective means of abating emissions and is critical to minimising cost of living pressures for Canberra’s most vulnerable households. Upgrading a home from zero to three stars can halve the average energy bill. At a time when electricity prices are increasing, this funding is urgently needed.
The value of public housing is drastically undermined if the cost of keeping it habitable is unaffordable to the occupant. We are disappointed to see that the government and the opposition again voted down the Greens’ rental bill, which would have gone a long way towards improving this issue. This legislation has the potential to save Canberra’s most vulnerable millions of dollars over the coming years and deliver significant contributions to the ACT’s 40 per cent emissions reduction target.
On renewable energy, we are glad to see that the first tranche of the large-scale feed-in tariff is moving ahead—I am sure we will see it in the next few weeks, just in time—but we are concerned about the length of time it took to pass the legislation and the time it has taken to progress the auction process for this initial tranche. We are yet to learn how the government plans to streamline the process to ensure that the full 210 megawatts of clean solar energy is delivered to Canberrans in a timely fashion.
We would also like to see greater provision in the pre-qualification criteria for community engagement and investment. Whilst we appreciate that cost effectiveness is one of the draw cards of this scheme, we should not ignore the need to engage members of the community in renewable energy solutions. After all, it is they who will be purchasing the energy generated from the scheme. This is exactly why opportunities to help households and businesses to generate their own renewable energy are so important.
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