Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question and welcome his new-found interest in energy efficiency, which I am sure will be very useful in the coalition party room. I do not have a copy of the report to which he refers with me, but I am sure he has studied it in great detail for the purposes of drafting this question. The 2009-10 report on energy efficiency in government operations outlined, I understand, government department energy use against voluntary targets. It shows that, whilst there has been an increase in energy use, we are in fact using less energy per person for light and power in 2009-10 than in the previous decade. Overall, energy use within Australian government operations is 25 per cent lower than it was in 1999-2000.

The senator might also like to be informed that around three-quarters of government energy use is by the Department of Defence. This includes defence operational fuel, which, I am advised, accounts for over half of Australian government energy use. The 11 per cent rise in total energy use in the period 2008-09 to 2009-10 was largely due to an increase in defence operational fuel.

In relation to my own department, I do not have detailed figures in front me. I would have to have a look at what the baseline of that was and what additional functions have been added to the Department of Finance and Deregulation over the period of my two predecessors, Senator Minchin and Mr Tanner.