Interview with Michelle Stanley, ABC Kimberley

MICHELLE STANLEY: More than 4000 social housing properties in Western Australia are set to receive an upgrade to their energy efficiency. It's part of a $63 million partnership between the federal and WA state government, with more details, Jenny McAllister is the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy. She's also a Senator for NSW. Good morning, what does this programme involve?

SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Well, we know that for many homes, small improvements can produce a lasting reduction in bills. There are literally millions of homes across the country that were built before minimum energy performance standards were in place. And we want to work with state and territory governments to improve the performance of those homes. It's particularly important for tenants who are living in social housing. These are some of the tenants who would most benefit from upgrades, but who can least afford to make them themselves. And that's why we're partnering with state governments to improve the quality of housing.

STANLEY: $63.2 million for up to 4300 homes in Western Australia, so, social housing in Western Australia, what work will be done on those homes?

MCALLISTER: Well, it's really. We rely a little bit on the assessment of the WA Government about what will particularly work for each home. But it might be things like the installation of insulation for ceilings or walls. It might be putting in a whirlybird roof vent, it might be putting in awnings on the north and west facing windows to deal with heat. It might be draught proofing, or it might be replacing an old and really inefficient appliance, you know, an old refrigeration unit that's really pulling down a lot of electricity and could actually perform a lot better if we replaced it.

STANLEY: So, it will change, obviously, depending on which property, but it sounds like there's a huge range of things that you're looking to, to upgrade or improve. What will be the criteria as to sort of what's done in each area or each home?

MCALLISTER: We're really relying on the West Australian government to identify those properties that could most benefit from the intervention. But they've told us that the area they want to work on is heat. You know, areas like in the Pilbara, and the Kimberley, and in the Goldfield regions are obviously subjected to some very high temperatures, obviously some really cold ones at times too. But really some very extremes in terms of very warm days. And we want to make sure that as many households as possible have got the tools that they need to keep themselves comfortable whilst maintaining a handle on their bills.

STANLEY: So, it's up to 4300 homes across the state. How will the homes be selected?

MCALLISTER: That'll be done by the West Australian Government. They'll be looking at the properties that they actually own and run, but also some of the properties where they're managing or providing maintenance support to a community housing provider or an Indigenous housing provider.

STANLEY: It's about $14,000 per home. If we're looking at $63 million, over 4000 homes. Is that what's likely to be spent on each home, $14,000 or more?

MCALLISTER: Look again. We'll really rely on the WA government to make a decision about how best to use the money. Obviously, you can do a very deep upgrade on a home and get a really good result, or sometimes you don't need to do quite as much to get the result that you want. We're relying on the WA Government to work with their housing providers, with their own tenants, to establish exactly what technologies will be installed. But the end point, we hope, will be houses that are more comfortable to live in and more affordable to run. We know that energy bills are one of the inputs to cost of living, households are worried about it. We're making some immediate steps to support households by providing a $300 electricity bill rebate from 1 July. But we know that in the medium term we can really help households by making some permanent changes to the arrangements in their home.

STANLEY: And that's the sort of focus of this or the impact you're hoping to have is around that cost of living?

MCALLISTER: Yeah, that's right. Like, we know that if we can reduce the amount of electricity that's required to keep a home running comfortably, then we can actually improve the quality of life for those tenants, both in terms of the comfort of their home, but also the money that they have available to spend on other things that are important to their family.

STANLEY: What about things like solar panels and batteries and things like that? Communal batteries? Could anything like that be considered?

MCALLISTER: This is a programme that really focuses on the household scale. But one of the technologies that the West Australian Government has told us that they're interested in is replacing gas hot water systems with electric or solar units. We know that those kinds of technologies can really help in reducing costs and actually, as it happens, can often reduce emissions as well.

STANLEY: On ABC radio Jenny McAllister is with you. She's the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy. We're talking about a $63.2 million announcement. It's a partnership between the state and federal governments to deliver energy savings for more than 4000 social homes in Western Australia. Is this the best use of funds? I mean, it says that these properties, a lot of them are more than 20 years old. The savings, the energy savings, the cost savings you're going to make from a few upgrades here and there, is it going to make a real difference or should more be done?

MCALLISTER: Yeah, we've got really good data to indicate that small improvements to a home's thermal shell can produce really large improvements in their bill savings. It's different in each region, and it's obviously dependent on the price of electricity and the demand that a particular household uses. But even upgrading the home, just a couple of stars, improving the energy performance of a home can reduce the bills by, we think, 30% in some examples. And so it is worth making these investments because we know that households can really reap some benefits if we just make some small improvements.

STANLEY: Jenny McAllister, thanks for your time on ABC radio today.

MCALLISTER: It's a total pleasure, Michelle. Thanks for having me on.

STANLEY: She's the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, also a Senator for NSW. So, $63.2 million between the state and federal governments to make energy upgrades to social housing around the state, particularly focused on hotter areas in the Kimberley, the Pilbara, Gascoigne, Mid West and the Goldfields, with a particular focus on First Nations people and communities.