Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for the question. It is my great pleasure to advise the House that today the Prime Minister and I announced at Just-Rite Insulation and Home Improvements in Fyshwick the fast-tracking of support for green jobs with the launch of the early installation guidelines for the $4 billion Energy Efficient Homes package. Through these guidelines released today, there will be the oppostunity for nearly three million dwellings to have ceiling insulation installed—that is, 2.2 million owner-occupiers will be eligible for up to $1,600 for ceiling insulation and some 700,000 landlords or tenants will be eligible for rebates of up to $1,000 for ceiling insulation. That means work coming through the doors now in the suburbs and cities of Australia. I should also point out that the solar hot water rebate has also been boosted under this package from $1,000 to $1,600, with no means test in place—a means test that was put in place by my predecessor as environment minister, the now Leader of the Opposition.

Households can get started, because these guidelines are now available. They just need to go online to see whether they are eligible, arrange for a tradie to come and get the work done and send in their receipt, and then they will get paid for it. That is great news for small business; it means work is coming in the door now. I also want to point out to the House that from 1 July this year the Energy Efficient Homes program will step up again with a free call direct booking and installation service, making it even easier for households to arrange installation. The toll-free number is 1800808571 and the online register and guidelines are at www.environment.gov.au/energyefficiency. Early installation guidelines are available now so that benefits can flow to businesses, to homes and to the economy. If Australians want to get ceiling insulation up and running now, they can.

But I notice that that is not the only online register that has been announced. Following the member for Tangney’s launch of an online petition yesterday stating that the world is not warming at an unusual rate or magnitude and that emissions trading should not go ahead, I thought that there is an interesting choice of websites for people who are listening to the House today to refer to. I table the member for Tangney’s online petition. When asked about who is responsible for climate change, the member for Tangney said that humans are not causing climate change. When it was pointed out to him that the opposition leader says—and it is true; it is on the record—that humans are affecting the climate and that the problem must be addressed, the member for Tangney said that he differs with his leader on that. When he was then asked how reporters should sum up the opposition’s climate change policy, the member for Tangney saids:

I’ll leave that to you to determine.

We have seen more and more different positions on responding to climate change from the opposition: low targets, high targets, no targets, carbon tax and—the last refuge of the cynics and the sceptics—climate denial. At this point in the week, when we finish the kind of week that we have had with the opposition opposing the delivery of a job-creating program that will put ceiling insulation in the homes of Australians, I say to the Leader of the Opposition: get your house in order, get on board—

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