Page 1442 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010
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Overseas and local experience shows that the combined effectiveness of small-scale retrofits, consumer education and targeted financial assistance in dealing with household utility services are important. In many cases, inadequate knowledge and poor energy habits are the driver of bill stress—not exclusively but they are part of the picture. Targeted education has been successful in reducing future price impacts and risk.
Therefore the government is ramping up its efforts in promoting energy efficiency to low income earners, to vulnerable households and the broader community. The government is currently advertising its energy efficiency programs under the monergy banner to make clear the link between energy savings and money savings.
HEAT, the home energy advice team, provides ACT residents with free advice on energy efficiency. This includes advice on house design, on appliances and on simple things that can be done every day to reduce energy needs and costs. So far, close to 24,000 Canberrans have taken advantage of this service. These have been simple, complex and face-to-face inquiries.
The ACT energy wise program goes a step further and provides an on-site inspection by an energy auditor, with a report on potential improvements customised to each residence. To again highlight our commitment to lower income households, the fee for this service is waived for concession cardholders and of course there is a rebate as part of taking measures recommended through that audit process.
Since November 2004, 4,285 energy wise audits have been conducted in Canberra homes. The number of inquiries and audits has increased each year that the program has been running. The government is continuing to expand the delivery of programs and rebate services and the $19 million ACTsmart initiative, as it is now known, providing a broad range of education and rebates to Canberra households, with a particular emphasis on low income households, will continue to be rolled out over the next three years as we deliver that program and provide a greatly enhanced program of rebates, assistance and advice to households, not just on energy efficiency but on water efficiency as well.
Mr Rattenbury’s motion is quite specific in some of its measures, and the government do not fully agree with some of the specific measures that Mr Rattenbury is calling for in his motion. We recognise absolutely the importance of tackling the issue of the impact on low income and vulnerable households of increases in utility concessions and the need to make sure that criteria and concessions regimes keep pace with changes in utility prices. But we do not accept that the level of specific action, in terms of the specific approach Mr Rattenbury is asking for, is appropriate. We believe that there needs to be a recognition that there is a range of ways of achieving the outcomes that Mr Rattenbury is seeking.
The government does not wish to pre-empt the outcome of its review of the energy concession arrangements nor, indeed, the decision the government will take in terms of the improvement that is possible in the level of payment for low income and vulnerable households. Therefore I will be moving amendments to Mr Rattenbury’s
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