Press conference with Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister at Alivio Tourist Park, O'Connor ACT

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks for coming this morning. It's great to be here at the Alivio Tourist Park. Alivio Tourist Park has reduced their bills and their emissions with some help from the federal government to ensure that they are doing their bit for the climate and also reducing their running costs. So we want to help more small and medium enterprises do just that.

So today, Assistant Minister McAllister and I are announcing a $50 million investment in the Metro Eco program, which is low interest loans, lower interest loans to help small and medium enterprise, help small businesses reduce their bills and emissions by things like solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles charging.

And this program is really designed to help small businesses make the sorts of decisions that are good for them and good for the climate, and this is a small part of our broader program, which we're rolling out. We'll have more announcements in coming weeks about our billion dollars to help households, our $100 million dollars to help local government and so much more.

So it's a pleasure to be here today to make this announcement. It's already the case that small businesses are making the transition to EVs and charging but we can make it easier, and this $50 million investment today does so. I'm going to ask Jenny to add to my remarks, and just before I do so, I'm going to wish Jenny happy birthday for yesterday, Jenny.

JENNY McALLISTER: Thank you Chris. Households right across the country know the benefits of energy performance. Just last year, 330,000 new solar installations in just one year alone. We know that small businesses also see the benefits in investing in their own energy performance. Here at Alivio group, they've managed to reduce their bills through solar panels to improving their lighting and through digital monitoring systems.

We want to make that easier, and this investment will allow significant numbers of small businesses access to finance for new technology, because when you connect finance with technology, you can get real bill savings and savings for the climate. It's not just in tourism and recreation like this facility here. It's right across the small business sector. I'm aware of a vineyard in Mildura that's made investments to electrify their great picking equipment. It's quieter, it's easier to maintain, and importantly, it's cheaper to run because it runs off the solar installation that they have on their roof.

We know we can do more for small business. We know that the CEFC can assist by providing discounted finance, and we're absolutely delighted to be announcing this partnership today.