Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The first legislation I spoke on in this place was the Climate Change Bill 2022. This was a critical piece of legislation that enshrined our country's commitment to net zero by 2050 and helped to provide the kind of policy certainty that businesses across Australia need to invest for the future.

One of the most important provisions of this bill is the transparency required from government on the progress Australia is making towards its emission reduction targets, transparency measures that were significantly strengthened by amendments made to the bill by members of the crossbench. Today, I am pleased to see this transparency in action. The evidence is clear that this parliament, with an expanded crossbench in both houses, has already delivered much stronger climate action than the last and it has delivered on several areas that matter most to my community in Wentworth—in legislated climate targets, action on the fossil fuel price crisis and a commitment to the National Electric Vehicle Strategy.

While this statement shows that progress has been made in the last eight months, it also makes clear that the government's approach is insufficient to even meet its modest target of 43 per cent. Under the baseline scenario, which reflects policies actually implemented, we're only likely to see a 32 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. Even with the strong execution of current policies we will only see emissions reduced by 40 per cent, and in some areas like transport our emissions are still rising and not expected to fall below current levels for well over a decade. And so the first point to be made clear from the annual climate change statement is that the government must do more. And there are two golden opportunities in front of us, opportunities that could reduce our emissions and save Australian families money on their energy bills.

The first of these opportunities is to electrify Australian households and power them with the cheapest home energy in the world—rooftop solar. By switching out our expensive gas appliances for more efficient electrical alternatives, like heat pumps and electric stove tops, the average Australian household could cut its energy use in half. And if these appliances were powered by rooftop solar, with a back-up battery in the garage for when the sun isn't shining, the average house in Wentworth could go zero emissions and save more than $3,000 a year on their energy bills. Rewiring Australia estimate if we add that up across Australia's 10 million households, we could cut around 40 per cent of our emissions in the domestic economy and save more than $300 billion between now and 2035. That is good value for money and it's a real impact for real people.

As a CEO of Sydney Renewable Power Company, I've seen firsthand the massive positive impact that cheap rooftop solar can have on energy bills and emissions, and there are numerous examples across my community in Wentworth. Nick in Bondi electrified his home with solar and saw his power bills plummet as a result. The Holdsworth community centre in Woollahra has a solar array that means they now spend less on power bills and more on delivering services like child care, dementia support and NDIS advice to the people who need them most. But to seize this opportunity we need governments to make it easier for households to get off expensive gas, and we need it to make it easier for families to overcome the up-front cost of these technologies.

In supporting electrification we need to go beyond one-size-fits-all policy measures that work for detached houses in outer suburbs but don't provide meaningful support for those living in high-density inner-city areas like Wentworth. Because it's those people living in apartments—often young people, often renters, often those without much money to invest in upgrading their home—who have the most to gain from an electrification opportunity but are the least likely to be able to seize it because either they're reliant on their landlord to install solar or they're faced with a dizzying array of regulations when they try to get together a strata committee to make the change themselves.

That's a situation facing many people in my electorate of Wentworth, 60 per cent of whom live in apartments, more than half of whom are renters, and nearly 40 per cent of those are under 40. That same situation is facing nearly three million Australian households across the country who live in rental properties. So the government needs to be ambitious in pursuing electrification opportunities, and it needs to ensure it provides tailored support for people in apartments and rental properties.

If the government is serious about climate and if it is serious about reducing cost-of-living pressures, May's budget must be the time it seizes this electrification opportunity. The budget package must include direct incentives for households to electrify, either in formal concessionary finance or tax incentives. It must broaden the remit of its existing solar banks program so that strata managers and owners corporations can access zero interest loans to install shared solar behind the meter on apartment rooftops. And it must kick off a serious process of regulatory reform to break the barriers facing renters who can't access rooftop solar, including by developing a national regulatory framework to share the power bill savings between landlords, who pay the upfront costs of installation, and renters who live in the property.

Beyond household electrification, the government must also follow through on its commitment to design and implement an ambitious National Electric Vehicle Strategy. That means urgently legislating strong fuel-efficiency standards so that Australian consumers have access to a broad range of cheaper EVs, and it means putting its foot on the floor in ensuring there are EV-charging infrastructure. We need an estimated 130 of these fast chargers in Wentworth by 2030 so that we don't continue to see power cords strung across the pavements because people in apartments have nowhere to charge their vehicles.

The first annual climate change statement shows the progress the parliament has made so far, but it also shows that we have much more to do. Turbocharging household electrification, in particular the installation of solar on apartment buildings, is a key part of this, as is accelerating the rollout of EVs. But let's not forget: 43 per cent is an unambitious goal. As we look forward, the government also needs to get a climate target that is aligned with the science, and so I urge it to set a 75 per cent emissions reduction target by 2035. It's aligned with the Paris Agreement, it's backed by the Investor Group on Climate Change and it will enable us to unlock billions of dollars in capital for the transition to cleaner, cheaper renewable energy.

See this speech in context