Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

The federal govern­ment will provide assistance to community organisations, and this has been outlined extensively by the Prime Minister and by Minister Combet. Charities around the country will be supported as we transition to the Clean Energy Future. The Low Carbon Communities program will fund grants for local councils and community organisations to retrofit or upgrade community-use build­ings to reduce their energy use. This will cut their energy costs and serve as demonstration projects to promote energy efficiency in the community. There will also be a dedicated funding stream under the Low Carbon Communities program to provide payments to charities to offset the carbon cost they will face for aviation fuels and fuels used for maritime purposes that will attract an effective carbon price under the fuel excise and tax credits scheme. This funding will be provided on an ongoing basis. So there will be support. We have also committed $53.6 million over four years to establish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission from July next year to reduce compliance costs and make it easier for not-for-profits to go about their business of continuing to a fairer—