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

Accelerating action to help households transition away from fossil fuels and electrify with renewables is an urgent matter of public importance. This week the Australian Energy Market Operator told us what we already know: energy transition is nowhere near fast enough. We are a long way from meeting even our modest climate goals, and we are running out of time. The transition must be a whole-of-economy effect, but one source is particularly close to home: Australia's 10 million households remain dependent on inefficient fossil fuel appliances and together account for more than 40 per cent of emissions in the domestic economy. At the same time, our reliance on expensive fossil fuels means that more than one in 10 Australians are skipping meals to pay their energy bills. We've dragged our feet on household transition for too long, and Australians are paying the price. As the Grattan Institute made clear this week, and as numerous others have made clear before, all electric homes are cheaper to run, better for our health and essential to reaching net zero.

We should be accelerating this transition, deploying rooftop solar, household batteries, heat pumps and electric cooktops at pace. But, instead, we are making things worse. We've got the policy wrong for a decade. More households are joining the gas network each year than leaving it. That's it; more people are joining gas rather than leaving it. That's despite gas being more expensive, bad for our health and contributing to nearly a quarter of our carbon emissions. But we have just enough time to turn things around.

Converting our homes to all-electric will be a major logistical challenge, but because electrical appliances are more efficient and rooftop solar is so cheap, it is a $300 billion economic opportunity that's worth the effort. The funding announced in May's budget is welcome, but it must be just the start. The government should prioritise three areas.

First, we need to start getting off gas now. The process will take time and will take leadership. That's why today I'm calling on the federal government to work with the states to end gas connections for new homes and put in place a clear road map and time frame for ending residential gas use across Australia. The government set aside nearly $7 million of taxpayers' money in the budget to fund a future gas strategy. That strategy should define a smooth exit from household gas which includes adjusting the regulatory framework so that the network is the right size and serves the right places, managing the costs of gas exit so that these are born equitably, and producing a blueprint for market reform so that the governance of our energy sector supports an all-electric future. The community needs to get off gas, and we need to support them to do that in a measured, thoughtful way that works for Australian households and works for families' power bills but also works for climate.

Second, we need to deploy existing funding effectively. The $1 billion already committed to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for household electrification is welcome, but it is less than 10 per cent of the support that Rewiring Australia estimates is needed to electrify every household. With the budget constrained, private capital is absolutely crucial to this transformation. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation's $1 billion could do 10 times as much work, if not more, if it were deployed through mechanisms that leverage private markets. By providing guarantees to private sector lending rather than providing loans directly, the CEFC could support many multiples of the 110,000 households currently anticipated. This is the opportunity to move beyond 110,000 households and support literally millions of Australian families to get into cheaper household electrification. This is a model that is common practice in markets across the world. It works and delivers value for money.

Finally, we need a one-stop shop for electrification. We need to make sure that consumers have the information and the support to make the right decisions for transition. I am frequently told by constituents that they want to get solar, a battery or a heat pump but they just don't know where to start, particularly with complicated layers of federal, state and local incentives and regulation. Multiply that by 151 electorates and we need a significant and sustained communications campaign to electrify every Australian household. A one-stop shop should be central to this. It would be a platform that explains clearly how to electrify and how to solve problems at each stage of the process, provides a comprehensive list of government incentives, shows household solar rooftop potential and helps families estimate the financial benefits of electrification.

Accelerating household electrification is an urgent matter of public importance. It won't be easy, it will take time, but we can do it. Let's get on with the job.

See this speech in context