Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I am trying to, Mr President. Senator Hutchins is being amusing—that is all. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts announced a range of changes to the Green Loans Program. I think the senator’s question refers to the transitional arrangements associated with that. I do not have any advice that I can find at this point about, as I think the question was, the number of audits or assessments within the department at the moment. I can advise her that, at 21 February 2010, more than 294,000 assessments had been booked, more than 192,000 assessments had been completed and over 81,000 assessment reports had been provided to households. I am not sure that those figures go directly to the particular question she asked. That is the information I have at this point.

I can indicate to her that the minister for the environment has also indicated that loans will be discontinued from 22 March 2010 and that, as at 21 February, some 2,400 applications for green loans had been received by financial institutions and some 1,600 had been issued. If there is further information, other than that which I have provided her, on that issue or if the figures differ from the figures I have provided, I will seek advice from the minister for the environment.