Interview with Tom Connell, Sky News

TOM CONNELL: Joining me now for more on this Assistant Climate Change and Energy Minister Jenny McAllister. Usually you have your offsider here, Jane Hume.

JENNY MCALLISTER: That's right.

TOM CONNELL: Can't quite make it work. It's been a busy week for all involved in the Senate, so not to worry. Look, what interests me about this announcement is I know we always hear about using renewables, but the reduction of actual power, more efficiency, that seems to be the one that - it's not spoken about as much because it's not sort of the totemic fossil fuels versus renewables, but it makes sense, right? It's like prevention versus cure and you lower bills and you actually reduce how much power we'll need. How much can be done there, how much inefficiency, I guess, is out there in terms of what we're using at the moment?

JENNY MCALLISTER: Well, Australia is rated very poorly in terms of energy efficiency, certainly in our household, and we know from lots of work that's been done by lots of entities that there are plenty of untapped opportunities in terms of saving energy in local government as well. Over the last decade this was not an area of focus for the previous government and what that means is that we have an opportunity now to turn that around. We're out this morning with Queanbeyan-Palerang Council at one of their facilities. They've done the studies, they've examined their energy use across the whole range of their facilities and they know that if they can make some investments, they will reap bill savings for council and that of course frees councils up to do more of the things that they're really good at.

TOM CONNELL: But they're getting some help from the government in this instance. What about households? Because it strikes me a lot of individual decisions would greatly affect how much we use and therefore our emissions. But when you go to buy a fridge or a washing machine or a dryer, generally speaking, those really efficient products are more expensive. People go, "I'd love to do it, I can't pay $2,000 for a washing machine." Do we need the hand of government there in terms of subsidies? It could be a win-win. It helps people out and reduces our emissions.

JENNY MCALLISTER: There are some upfront costs sometimes for purchasing more energy efficient products or making your house generally more efficient. And it's actually one of the really important initiatives that was in the Budget. We allocated a billion dollars to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to start delivering concessional loan products to allow households to meet those upfront costs. Often the energy savings that are then available can really assist with paying off those upfront costs.

TOM CONNELL: How micro can that be? Can that be one person buying a washing machine? What does that actually apply to?

JENNY MCALLISTER: Well, the CEFC have done a range of programmes that look like this already. So, for example, they partnered with the Bank of Australia to offer a green mortgage, so that if you sought to refinance your home and, in the process, lifted its energy performance, you could get a lower rate on your mortgage.

TOM CONNELL: So, refinance your loan, and then maybe you go, "All right, I'm going to replace these three products, add that seven grand to my mortgage, I know I'll get savings out of it and have that effectively subsidised," for want of a better description. Is that how it would work?

JENNY MCALLISTER: That was the product that was developed with the Bank of Australia. And the Budget initiative will allow the CEFC to partner with new finance providers to do a range of different things. I guess what we're hoping is that it will spur some innovation in the finance sector that will allow these products to come to market. That partnering finance with technology so that homeowners and businesses can reap the benefits.

TOM CONNELL: And is there any eligibility restrictions on that? Can anyone access that?

JENNY MCALLISTER: We're working through the details of how it will be rolled out with the CEFC. Obviously, from the government's perspective, we'd like to make sure that as wide as possible group of households can reach it. We know that for renters and people on low incomes, these kinds of investments can make a real difference. And we want to make sure that the program that's rolled out does as much as we can to allow access for those cohorts.

TOM CONNELL: Because renters aren't refinancing anything. Right, so how do they get into this?

JENNY MCALLISTER: So, we will be working with the CEFC to see what products are put forward. 

TOM CONNELL: Okay.

JENNY MCALLISTER: There are other products on the market that are not to do with mortgages, but are instead essentially personal loan style products performing a similar kind of function.

TOM CONNELL: Okay. All right. Interesting. Interesting week. That's the word for it in Parliament. How do you sort of reflect on the culture here? You've been here a little while now. I guess, how did you find entering Parliament? Someone's just spoken about it. Was it this sort of incredible hot house that the headlines are there? Is it that when incidents happen they get such huge headlines that it's disproportionate? What's your view on that?

JENNY MCALLISTER: This is a workplace that has significance not just for the people who work here, but for the whole country. It is naturally an area of real public interest. In 2021, we went through a really important national conversation about women's safety, women's safety at work and other public places, and we talked about what needed to happen to set the standard in Parliament House. The report by Kate Jenkins was enormously important and pleasingly received bipartisan support at the time. Since coming to government, I know that the Minister for Women and the Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher, has been really working through implementation, consulting with the staff that work here and stepping through it in a really focussed way. It is really important that this workplace feels safe for the people who work here. It matters, of course, for the staff, but it matters more generally that the public can have confidence in how the building operates.

TOM CONNELL: I find it interesting because there was that report and people could put in anonymous submissions. Was there ever going to be a follow-up and maybe investigations? It strikes me that often when there's an allegation made afterwards people will go, "I'd heard things about so and so without going into individual cases," and you sort of think, well, was that supposed to come out of the Jenkins Review?

JENNY MCALLISTER: I think that one of the important recommendations in the Setting the Standard report was that there be an independent body established where people could take complaints and have them investigated. And importantly, this was to be established in a way that would provide - that would be centred around the needs of complainants, so that complainants could feel comfortable and confident in the process. The Parliamentary Workplace Support Service is the place where such complaints may now be referred, and I think that is a very important reform.

TOM CONNELL: A very direct call from Peter Dutton that Senator Van should actually resign from Parliament, even though allegations haven't been tested. What do you make of that?

JENNY MCALLISTER: These are really matters for Mr Dutton and for the Liberal Party, Tom.

TOM CONNELL: Happy for him to deal with it how he is as the leader, obviously?

JENNY MCALLISTER: I'm really not going to comment on the decisions taken by Mr Dutton today, but as I say, I think these are questions for him and for the Liberal Party.

TOM CONNELL: All right, Senator, we'll talk to you next week, hopefully with Jane there too.

JENNY MCALLISTER: That'd be good. Thanks, Tom.