Doorstop at Glandore, South Australia

LOUISE MILLER-FROST: It’s great to be here in central Boothby in Glandore, and thank you so much to Janet, who’s our host for today, who’s lived here for 45 years. It’s my honor to welcome Nick Champion, and also Josh Wilson over from Western Australia, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy.

And we know that the climate, the energy transition that we need to go undergo, across Australia, both in terms of our energy manufacture, but also in terms of, at a household level, how much energy we use and how much energy we can produce ourselves, is really important.

But when you’re in a Housing Trust house, when you’re in a house that you’re renting, or when you’re on a ground floor of a high rise, it becomes more difficult to access green energy, and those sorts of energy-saving efficiency. So this is a really exciting project, which I understand is actually starting here today for Janet, and I’m handing over to Nick I think, Josh, handing over to Josh.

JOSH WILSON: Thanks, Louise, it’s beautiful to be here in South Australia in Boothby to make an announcement under the Albanese Labor Government’s Social Housing and Energy Performance Initiative (SHEPI).

It will see the upgrade of 60,000 households Australia-wide, it’s a $300 million investment, and today we’re announcing the South Australian part of the SHEPI, which is $36 million between the Albanese and Malinauskus Labor Governments to see the upgrade of 3,500 social housing dwellings administered by the Housing Trust of South Australia.

We know that Australia needs to be on the path for cleaner and cheaper energy, and that involves investment in storage, but the energy efficiency part of that task is under-regarded and important, because the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use in the first place. That’s why the Albanese Labor Government provided $1.7 billion in the May budget to improve energy efficiency across the board.

We’re supporting local governments, we’re supporting small and medium enterprises, we’re supporting homeowners, but we’re also trying to provide support to social housing tenants, because they are among the most vulnerable Australians when it comes to the impact of energy prices, and sometimes that’s because they live in housing stock that is relatively old and hasn’t had the benefit of some of the changes in construction types that we’ve seen over the last couple of decades.

It’s really vital that you see these kinds of improvements occur for all Australians, but we’re making our contribution to the energy transition in a socially responsible way. We want to make sure that Australians who face disadvantage or are vulnerable to price impacts have the benefit of upgrades that make their houses more liveable.

We know that Janet here is actually getting insulation installed later on today, that will mean that her house is warmer in cool conditions and cooler in warm conditions, in addition to bringing the costs down and, of course, reducing emissions across the board. It’s a really important project, and what we’re doing with the SHEPI, and with energy performance upgrades as a whole, is in keeping with the approach of the Albanese Labor Government in every area, which is to make a difference right now, to reduce costs right now for Australian households, doing it tough while setting Australia up for a better future. I’ll now hand over to Minister Nick Champion.

NICK CHAMPION: Thanks, Josh. Look, we really appreciate the Commonwealth’s partnership in this matter. The average age of a Housing Trust home is 44 years, and so we’ve got a lot of old stock. A lot of that stock is poorly insulated. It has draughts, and, as a consequence, it’s really hard to heat and cool, and that has an effect on all of our tenants, including Janet, who’s with us today.

And Janet is, you know, I might say, one of our longest-term tenants. She’s obviously a great tenant to have, and she’s doing a great job of being a tenant here at this property. It’s just terrific to hear that we can provide insulation that might make the house easier to heat, easier to cool, and of course, other works will be done at this property to upgrade it as well.

So, a really important program, 3,500 homes upgraded on this program, we have 33,000 properties, 50,000 tenants. Whenever we do a partnership like this, it provides us with really important improvements to our housing trust stock, and that’s important at the end of the day to people like Janet, so a really critical and important partnership.

We thank the Albanese Labor Government for it, and we thank Louise as a local member for being such a great advocate for communities like Glandore. And of course, it’s great to see people like Janet benefitting from it. I might ask Janet just to give us a few words about what it’s been like to live here for 45 years and hopefully to see these upgrades to the property she’s tenanting for us.

JANET KNOTT: I’ve lived here for 45 years and it’s really great, schools are close, the tram line’s close, the bus line’s close. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. All the upgrades will be really great, because it does get very cold in winter and very hot in summer. I’m looking forward to the repairs.

JOURNALIST: And Janet, I mean, how great will these upgrades be to your energy bill?

KNOTT:  A lot, because every, you know, each year the bill goes up higher and higher. So, anything to save money.

JOURNALIST: And I mean, you’ve seen this house through decades. I mean, how grateful are you for it to be to finally, I suppose, given a makeover.

KNOTT: I can’t wait.

JOURNALIST: Just a question for Minister Champion, if that’s alright. I’m going to start, I suppose, with the rising cost of living at the moment, how important will these upgrades be for people that are doing it tough?

CHAMPION: Look, they’re incredibly important. As Josh says, you know, the more efficient we make homes, the better insulated they are, the better the glazing on the windows, the better the draft-proofing is around windows and doors, the less energy you have to use, the less intensive the air conditioner has to run, or the heater has to run, and it just it helps the Trust manage what is a pretty big renewal program underway.

Forty-four years old, the average age of a Housing Trust house, so we’re dealing with aging stock, we want to upgrade it. That improves the lives of tenants, and of course, it lowers their energy bills, which is a win-win. So, these sorts of programs, undertaken by the Commonwealth, we can’t get enough of them, and we thank the Commonwealth for their work.

JOURNALIST: And I know Janet’s lucky enough to get these upgrades before summer. Do we have any idea how many might get rolled out?

CHAMPION: Well, the Trust are managing this for 3,500 homes, and obviously we’re prioritizing where we can get the biggest bang for our buck. This is a sort of, you know, textbook example. Most of these homes built in this generation are lucky to get one- or two-star ratings. Most, you know, nearly every house that’s built in the last sort of decade has got six stars. We’re now going to seven stars for our general stock. So, these upgrades can really lift these homes in terms of their thermal efficiency. So really important upgrades, wonderful.