Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) Media Release
ACOSS welcomes the agreement between the Federal Labor Government and Senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie, Lidia Thorpe and David Van to task ARENA to invest in home electrification projects – and urges ARENA to prioritise disadvantage households.
As a result of the agreement, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has tasked the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) with considering funding for more community electrification demonstration projects across the country, off the back of a $5.4 million pilot that commenced in Wollongong in October last year.
The projects aim to help more people access solar, batteries, energy efficient appliances and shared community energy storage to permanently cut energy bills and speed up the energy transition.
“We applaud Senators Pocock, Lambie, Thorpe, Van and the FederalGovernment for listening to the voices of the community and working together to deliver this funding, which will help ensure more people, including low-income households, benefit from the energy transition,” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.
“This is good news for people living in hot boxes, struggling with heatwaves and high energy bills.
“Houses that are more thermally efficient, fully electric and with solar can save households up to $3,487 a year and reduce temperatures in the home.
“We urge ARENA to ensure projects have a strong focus on low-income housing, rental properties and First Nations Communities, who are missing out on the benefits of home energy upgrades.
“People experiencing financial disadvantage are more likely to live in poor energy performing homes, and as a result are more likely to get sick in the summer heat, face high energy bills and go without food, medicines and other essentials to manage their bills.
“We need a $50 billion investment over the next decade that prioritises people and communities experiencing disadvantage to help more people cut their energy bills, protect them from the ravages of heatwaves, and speed up the energy transition.
“Prioritising disadvantaged households would reduce energy hardship and inequality, reduce illness, and build social license for faster action to tackle the climate change crisis,” Dr Goldie said.
As we head into an election, ACOSS urges all parties and candidates to:
- Build on the critical federal investment into home energy upgrades for social housing to commit to upgrade ALL social housing, prioritising First Nations social housing.
- Provide support* to the States and Territories to implement mandatory energy performance standards for rental properties.
- Provide support* to help low-income homeowners access home energy upgrades.
An ACOSS-commissioned Deloitte Report found that a home energy upgrade program focused on low-income households could generate up to $17 billion in gross domestic product and create 12,700 full time jobs.
*Support includes subsidies, zero or low-interest loans, and culturally appropriate ‘one-stop-shop services’ that provide tailored information and support like access to energy audits, qualified and certified trades, financial supports.
See also: Climate Council: Renewables suburbs an electrifying plan to cut costs and climate pollution
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Nah, we can’t have that happen. WE NEEEEED NUCLEAR POWER. Fancy wasting money on the most needy when there are so many well to do people to pander to.
Reading The Autumn Of The Patriarch I found this wonderful quote, as the patriarch is ruminating over his life, an internal monologue that has sentences the length of a decent paragraph, and paragraphs that make great chapters….”…the queen of the poor wasn’t even worth dancing with, that she was as common as so many other slum Manuela Sanchezes with her nymph’s dress of muslim petticoats and the gilt crown with artificial jewels …. so he gave her everything she wanted which was only electricity and running water for the dog fight district.”
The trouble with giving to the poor is…… mmmmm, perhaps it is a good idea after all, but please don’t tell Dutton and his mates. Their needs it seems are quite basic but are there votes there?
The Department of Housing and their social housing providers should be tasked with getting rooftop solar onto all their rooftops. This would cover around 150,000 households in NSW
Well, it’s a nice idea, however as usual there is one element that stands in the way!
This will not be considered by the owners of rental property who have sub-standard properties with poor heating-cooling simply because they don’t want to spend the money required to do that.
They are not interested in partial funding, they want the entire amount funded by taxpayer, thank you very much, and until this Negative Gearing Ponzi scheme is removed no idea is going to get past first muster.
I live in such a situation with a landlord that refuses to spend money on anything that does not benefit him; I’ve been waiting for 12 months for a simple clothes line repair which will cost nothing more than $50.00 for the replacement cord from Bunnings.
I had been here for 15 months before an effective heating/cooling system was installed and still have a rather large hole in the wall where the old unit had been and still waiting for the plastering to be completed, however not before I’m left with an incendiary gas bill of $2K with an Energy provider who is the worst in the business profiteering from the entire mess.
Far too many in the food chain of inefficiencies here with people complaining about removing negative gearing so its quite obvious what’s going on here from Government, regulators to utilities, to builders, sparkies, plumbers you name it, they all have a vested finger in the pie.
Yes, there are regulations that require landlords to effect inspections for ongoing maintenance and repairs, however they just say stuff you and do nothing and they have a two-year window of non-compliance before the next ‘inspection’.
I am not aware how many disadvantaged households own a car. However, if they can be subsidised to get an EV there is no need for a battery for the home. The EV is a larger battery on wheels and the relevant Vehicle-to-Home technology should be easily implementable. The Nissan Leaf has had the option for some years now. The car acts as a battery for the home during the hours the solar panels are not producing and the panels charge the car battery during the day. I have been planning this for my own home but other priorities have intervened.
Hi, totaram. Glad you made it.