Govt unveils energy programs

9 Feb 2012, 7:33 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Three new energy efficiency programs will do more than simply encourage Australians to turn off the lights, the federal government says.

The federal government insists a $340 million package of programs that will help councils, communities and poorer households become more energy efficient won't be open to rorting like the botched home insulation scheme.

The bulk of the money, to be made available from the second half of this year, will be spent on efficiency upgrades to infrastructure including council buildings, stadiums, education facilities, town halls and nursing homes.

Some $100 million will go towards helping low-income households save energy and $40 million will help provide information and advice to small and medium-sized businesses and community groups.

The programs will be delivered through grants to interested parties, such as welfare groups, and a call for expressions of interest will go out next week, Local Government Minister Simon Crean and junior climate change minister Mark Dreyfus said on Thursday.

The ministers said appropriate safeguards would ensure the money was well spent.

"These programs ... most importantly work through trusted, experienced community organisations which have the local expertise and, in many cases, expertise in just this kind of programme already," Mr Dreyfus told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"I'm confident, and the government is confident, that by working through trusted and experienced community organisations and local councils there will be appropriate safeguards in place."

Mr Dreyfus said the energy efficiency programs were "very differently designed" to the botched home insulation scheme which resulted in four deaths and hundreds of house fires.

Mr Crean said the programs would enable the federal government to help those organisations, groups and individuals that wanted to reduce their carbon emissions.

"It's got to be a partnership," he told reporters.

"That is the role of government. In the end, you can't force behaviour but you can teach by good behaviour and we need programs that help people do that."

Mr Crean said it was "trite" to suggest, as one reporter did, that the government was spending $340 million "to help people turn off the lights".

UnitingCare Australia says the low-income energy efficiency program will help disadvantaged people stay warm in winter and keep the lights on at night.

"Investment in services like those announced today will reduce financial hardship and sets people up to manage their energy costs on their own," national director Lin Hatfield Dodds said in a statement.

"As energy costs continue to rise we have to get smarter about the way we use precious resources."

The Brotherhood of St Laurence said the program was an opportunity to move beyond "giving out free light globes and showerheads".

"We would like to see new measures that deal with the bigger issues like replacing old inefficient hot water systems, and helping households upgrade their refrigerator or heating system," the agency's executive director Tony Nicholson said in a statement.

The successful grants will be announced in the second half of 2012.

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