Press conference with Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister at Pennant Hills, NSW

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks for coming. Households can save money and reduce emissions by upgrading their energy systems, including renewable energy, reverse cycle air conditioning, efficient air conditioning and many other things, including putting in an EV charger, if that's the decision they've made. But these things can all, of course, be very expensive and we can make it a bit cheaper by providing access to lower interest loans. This is something that the government's been working on, as you know, for a long time.

And today I'm very pleased to announce the first allocation under the Federal Government's Household Energy Upgrade Fund of low interest loans through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to help households do just that. To put in solar panels, put in a battery, put in a heat pump, put in efficient air conditioning, put in an EV charger, amounts between $2000 and $50,000 for families to make that decision, with a quite well discounted interest rate of more than 2 per cent or 3 per cent, depending on the package, off alone, to get this job done. So, this helps families reduce their bills and reduce their emissions. It's all about helping families with cost of living and in reducing our country's emissions. So, it's a good day today. I look forward to many, many more announcements. Congratulations to Plenti for being the first provider under this programme.

I want to thank the CEFC for the very rigorous analysis. Of course, we're talking about a billion dollar program here, so there's rigorous analysis that goes into this to ensure that the taxpayer is getting a good return for money and that risk is being minimised. And that's, that means there's a lot of work that goes into ensuring the taxpayer is well catered for in these important programmes.

I'll just mention briefly, before I hand over to Jenny, that today, of course, we are opening the first round of our expanded Capacity Investment Scheme, six gigawatts of renewable energy investment across the national energy market, with particular allocations for NSW, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. The Capacity Investment Scheme really underpins our plan to get to 82 per cent renewables by 2030. And I'm very pleased today to be launching the first auction. It's open for registrations as of today. It's a big step forward in Australia's renewable energy future, as is the first round of loans under the Household Energy Upgrade Fund. I'll ask Assistant Minister McAllister, who's been integral to putting this package together, to say a few words.

JENNY MCALLISTER: Thank you, Chris, and what a pleasure it is to be here and to have a chance to speak with Noel about the changes he's made to his property, installing batteries and solar, and the cost savings that have arisen for him as a consequence of that decision.

Now, for nearly a decade, Australians were paying for energy that was literally leaking out doors and windows. Under the previous government, this was an area of policy that was ignored while they fought amongst themselves to decide whether or not climate change was real and what kind of energy policy would be appropriate. Not a question that they ever settled. Our government is determined to take a different approach, and it's why in our last budget, we allocated $1.7 billion for improving energy performances in homes and businesses.

Now, there are perhaps 2 million households where the homes were built before Minimum Energy Performance Standards were in place. Now, these homes are performing at really very low levels, and small investments can often make a big difference. We know that if we can connect consumers to finance and good technology, they can make real bill savings in their homes. And that's what today's announcement is all about, providing low cost finance with a partner like Plenti, so that across the country, more Australians can have access to these technologies and lower their bills.

With 7 million homes built before Minimum Energy Performance Standards were in place, this is an important initiative and one that we know can make a difference. There is more to do. This is just the start. There's a billion dollars allocated to the CEFC for finance of this kind. But we are determined to make a difference, determined to provide the circumstances where Australians can achieve lasting reductions on their home energy bills and also make every watt count.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thank you.