Page 2523 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 2013
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went back to where they came from when they finished work. That happens less in 2013 than it did 20 or 30 years ago.
Of course, people also used to retire to the south coast but I think it would be fair to say that the baby boomers have now acquired all of the cheap property on the south coast. In fact, the level of services, the health system, the amenity, the liveability of the city of Canberra continue to ensure that we retain people in their retirement years. This is a good thing for the territory economy. It is a good thing for Canberra families that they stay together, that there are many generations of Canberrans living in this city. It is a wonderful thing as we move into our second century that the city is establishing many generations in the same city. (Time expired.)
Energy—efficiency
MR GENTLEMAN: My question is to the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development. Minister, you introduced the energy efficiency improvement scheme on 1 January this year, and you have previously spoken about its objectives in this Assembly. Can you please provide us with an update on how the scheme is progressing?
MR CORBELL: I thank Mr Gentleman for the question. I am pleased to confirm to the Assembly that the energy efficiency improvement scheme is now being rolled out across the ACT reaching thousands of Canberra homes, helping those Canberra families to save money on their electricity bills and also to save greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy efficiency improvement scheme requires electricity retailers to provide free or subsidised energy efficiency services to their customers. As a result of the success of schemes in other jurisdictions, the ACT has implemented this scheme. The scheme draws on the experience of jurisdictions like South Australia and Victoria. It is worth noting that in 2011 the Victorian Liberal government agreed to a doubling of the targets under its Victorian energy efficiency target scheme and also to expand its scheme to small and medium-size business enterprises.
When the scheme commenced in January this year ActewAGL launched a free energy efficiency program to provide ACT residents with energy-saving products. The uptake of this scheme is voluntary for Canberra households, but I am pleased to report that the uptake has been very impressive. The following activities have been undertaken already by the end of June this year by an estimated 10,000 Canberra households: some 5,300 installations of fixed sealing to doors to deal with drafts and prevent leakage from the home, 65,134 installations of a low energy general lighting lamps, 3,355 installations of standby power controllers for information technology such as computers, and over 12,000 installations of standby power controllers for audio-visual equipment.
What this highlights is that Canberrans are warmly embracing the opportunity to save electricity in their homes and to reduce their power bills as a result. It is estimated already that these measures have resulted in deemed abatement of over 78,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. So these are very, very important savings, not just for
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