Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It's no secret that families across Australia are doing it tough. Inflation is running at close to eight per cent and interest rates are rising. Energy prices are a well-documented driver of this cost-of-living squeeze, with the average electricity price expected to rise by 23 per cent this year. Our reliance on expensive fossil fuels is the root cause of this. While the sun hasn't got more expensive and the wind hasn't got more expensive, coal and gas prices have skyrocketed because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Australian families are paying the price.

The silver lining is that faster action on climate change can permanently lower power bills across the country. In Australia we are indeed the lucky country—lucky because we have access to the cheapest home electricity in the world, rooftop solar, which can deliver electricity prices as low as three cents per kilowatt hour. That means that electrifying our households and powering them with Australian sunshine is an unparalleled opportunity to address the cost-of-living crisis for good. By switching out expensive gas appliances for more efficient electric alternatives, like heat pumps and electric stovetops, Australian households could cut their energy use in half. If these appliances were powered by rooftop solar with a backup battery in the garage, the average household in my electorate could save over $3,000 per year on their energy bills. At the same time as saving money, they would also be going into zero emissions. Rewiring Australia's estimate is that if we could add that up across Australia's 10 million households, we could cut over 40 per cent of emissions in the domestic economy and save more than $300 billion between now and 2035. That's cost-of-living relief and great climate policy.

As the CEO of Sydney Renewable Power Company, I saw firsthand the impact that cheap rooftop solar can have on energy bills and emissions. There are so many examples from across my community in Wentworth, from Nick in Bondi, who electrified his house with solar and saw his power bills plummet as a result; to Bronte Public School, who now save $6,000 a year because of the 100-panel solar array on their roof. But to seize this opportunity we need government to make it easier to get off expensive gas and to make it easier for families to overcome the upfront costs of clean technologies.

In supporting household electrification, we need more than a one-size-fits-all policy that works for detached houses in the suburbs but doesn't provide support for those living in high-density urban areas, because people living in apartments and people who are renting—often young people—are most exposed to this fossil fuel price crisis. Finder's latest Consumer Sentiment Tracker shows that those in Gen Z and Gen Y face electricity bills that are up to 26 per cent higher than for those aged 60-plus. That's partly because, if you're a young person in an apartment, you probably don't have access to rooftop solar. If you're renting, you're reliant on your landlord to install it for you. If you're fortunate enough to own your own flat, perhaps you can't afford it, and, if you can, you're faced with a dizzying array of regulations when you try to get together with the strata committee to make that change. That's the situation facing many people in Wentworth, where 60 per cent of homes are apartments and 45 per cent are rented. Nearly 40 per cent of the adults are under 40. That same situation is facing nearly three million Australian households across the country who live in rental properties.

So the government needs to be ambitious in pursuing the electrification opportunity, and it needs to ensure that this is an opportunity available to all. May's budget is a chance to seize this opportunity. The government's budget package must include direct incentives for households to electrify, in the form of either concessionary finance or tax incentives. The government must broaden the remit of its existing solar banks program so that strata managers and owners corporations can access zero-interest loans to install shared solar on apartment rooftops, and it must kick off a process of regulatory reform to break the barriers facing renters who can't access rooftop solar, including developing a national framework to share power bill savings between landlords and renters. If the government is serious about climate and about cost-of-living relief, May's budget must be the time it seizes the electrification opportunity.

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