Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Australian Greens amendment (8) on sheet 5179:

(8)    Schedule 1, page 4 (after line 23), after item 5, insert:

5C  After Part 8

Insert:

Part 8A—Energy Savings Fund

38D  Establishment of Energy Savings Fund

The Energy Savings Fund is established by this section.

38E  Purposes of Energy Savings Fund

        (1)    The purposes of the Energy Savings Fund (the Fund) are to provide funding:

             (a)    to encourage energy savings; and

             (b)    to address peak demand for energy; and

             (c)    to stimulate investment in innovative energy savings measures; and

             (d)    to increase public awareness and acceptance of the importance of energy savings measures; and

             (e)    to encourage cost effective energy savings measures that reduce greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of energy; and

              (f)    to provide funding for contributions made by the Commonwealth for the purposes of national energy regulation.

        (2)    It is not a purpose of the Fund to provide funding for investment in low emission power generation, or any other kind of power generation, where the primary purpose of the generation is to generate energy for sale into the power grid.

38F  Payments into Energy Savings Fund

There is payable into the Fund:

             (a)    all money received from contributions required to be made to the Fund under section 38H; and

             (b)    all money appropriated by Parliament for the purposes of the Fund; and

             (c)    the proceeds of the investment of money in the Fund.

38G  Payments out of Energy Savings Fund

        (1)    There is payable from the Energy Savings Fund any money:

             (a)    approved by the Minister to fund all or any part of the cost of any energy savings measure that the Minister is satisfied promotes a purpose referred to in subsection 38E(1); and

             (b)    approved by the Minister to fund all or any part of the contributions that the Commonwealth is required to make for the purposes of national energy regulation; and

             (c)    required to meet administrative expenses related to the Fund; and

             (d)    required to meet administrative expenses of the Minister in connection with the Minister’s functions under this Act.

        (2)    In exercising the Minister’s functions under paragraph (1)(a) (but without limiting the generality of that paragraph), the Minister may:

             (a)    approve selection criteria from time to time to be applied to determine the kinds of energy savings measures that will be eligible for funding from the Fund; and

             (b)    require a person or body seeking funding for an energy savings measure to do either or both of the following as a precondition to applying for or obtaining funding:

                   (i)    to submit an energy savings action plan that includes details about the measure;

                  (ii)    to provide any other information requested by the Minister about the measure; and

             (c)    obtain and have regard to any advice, recommendations or other information provided to the Minister by a committee appointed by the Minister, or by any other person or body that the Minister considers relevant.

38H  Minister may require registered corporations to make contributions

        (1)    The Minister may by regulation require registered corporations to make an annual contribution for a specified financial year to the Fund.

        (2)    A regulation made for the purposes of subsection (1):

             (a)    must specify the annual contributions payable by each registered corporation to which it applies (being an amount that does not exceed the maximum amount, if any, prescribed by the regulations); and

             (b)    may specify that an annual contribution may be paid by instalments during the financial year to which the regulation applies; and

             (c)    must specify the time or, in the case of an annual contribution that is payable by instalments, the times at which any contribution required under the regulation is to be made; and

             (d)    may be made before or within the first 3 months of the financial year to which it relates.

Since the government opposes implementing the energy efficiency audits that this legislation requires and having a national energy efficiency target, let us hope that the government and the opposition can support the establishment of an energy savings fund. We have had the low-emissions technology fund set up by the government. It caused great excitement to start with because people thought it was actually going to invest in new renewable energy technology. Instead of that, of the $500 million that has been allocated, more than $300 million has gone to the coal industry, one of the most profitable industries in the country, and less than $80 million has gone into renewable energy projects. So not only has it been a huge disappointment in terms of the renewable energy sector but, equally, when you are talking about new energy, it is not talking about the technologies that will help to save energy.

I am proposing to complement what the government has already got with its low-emissions technology fund. I am saying: let’s set up an energy savings fund. The purposes of the fund would be to provide funding to encourage energy savings, address peak demand for energy, stimulate investment in innovative energy savings measures, increase public awareness and acceptance of the importance of energy savings, encourage cost-effective energy saving measures that reduce greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of energy, and provide funding for contributions made by the Commonwealth for the purposes of national energy regulation.

The purpose of the fund is not to provide funding for low-emissions power generation for renewables. That is a separate thing altogether. This is specifically a fund to facilitate investment in energy savings. If the government and the opposition want to put billions into clean coal, then they must have some justification for why they would oppose putting substantial sums of money into energy savings.

Progress reported.