Page 5315 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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Unlike some in this place, we have been pleased to see that the government at least have not taken the attitude that this is an excuse not to take action, although we do recognise that they are moving rather slowly on some of these climate policies. We must take action, but we must ensure that those who are most vulnerable to energy price rises can continue to afford their energy bills and that they are our very highest priority for energy efficiency programs that are rolled out through the community.
In that debate and subsequently the Greens raised a number of very concrete measures. I am pleased to say that the government has adopted some of these initiatives. We suggested that the government adjust the energy concession rebate, such that the rebate amount is lifted to at least 20 per cent of the average household energy bill. The government’s announcement last year to increase the concession mostly addressed this issue and the decision to index the rebate was also welcome, as figures attained from the government last year clearly indicated that the rate had fallen drastically over the past five years as a proportion of average power bills.
We also called on the government to consider extending the methodology of the WEST program to other low income families. It has been good to see this proposal taken up firstly with a trial program and now a program that seems more firmly entrenched. It is still small, but we continue to hear very successful things about how they engage with households. The program now targets households before they get into trouble because they cannot pay their bills. The previous WEST program specifically targeted those who had generally ended up in ACAT with financial problems already. We know that we must make services more accessible at the prevention end. The WEST plus program aims to do this.
One specific proposal that the government has not yet considered is to fund the community sector to properly advocate on behalf of the community with regard to energy policy issues. There are a number of issues that will require some proper consultation with the community, and particularly with those who represent households at risk of energy poverty, such as deregulated pricing, time of use tariffs and the national energy market consultations. I hope that these are the sorts of issues that the recently announced expert roundtable will address.
I would also like to mention the energy efficiency in public housing initiative in the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement. The agreement has delivered a doubling of the funding for this. We now have $4 million annually to provide very targeted assistance to those in public housing who need the assistance most.
In the area of transport, it is important to ensure that public transport patrons have appropriate concessions to use public transport. Lack of public transport opportunity is a serious issue that leads to social exclusion. It can create difficulties for people in terms of accessing employment, education, health and other services. We support the government’s public transport concession fare system that recognises seniors and pensioners, students, veterans, people with a disability and carers. We also support the need for a national student card that would ensure that students, including international students, can receive concessions on their travel costs.
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