Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. Will the minister update the House on the government’s commitment to increase energy efficiency to help reduce Australia’s carbon pollution and deal with dangerous climate change?

Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fran Bailey interjecting

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Isaacs for his question and the member opposite for her contribution on addressing global warming, which is to put shadecloth over the Great Barrier Reef. They would not ratify Kyoto but they had the bits of green out ready to go.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will address the question.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government takes seriously the need to have a comprehensive approach to tackle dangerous climate change. In delivering the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, we have committed to providing assistance to Australian households to take practical action to reduce their energy use, to save on energy bills and to make a tangible contribution to reducing carbon pollution. We are bringing forward a national strategy on energy efficiency to provide the coherence and national leadership in this area that has been lacking for the last 12 years—leadership for business, for industry and for households to take cost-effective energy efficiency actions.

I note, today, a new report from the Brotherhood of St Laurence, KPMG and Ecos Corporation emphasising the importance of energy efficiency for households, particularly those on low incomes. We welcome the contribution of that report. It is something that the government understands very well. In fact, we are putting in place some $1 billion of household and community renewable energy and energy and water efficiency measures, which we have announced in the recent budget. Since 1 July, over 2,200 schools around Australia have registered to become solar schools. We very much welcome the great interest that communities and schools are showing around Australia for the Rudd Labor government’s program. We will be providing more funding and more installations of PV solar systems in 2008 and 2009 than in any year in Australia’s history. This comes after—

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hunt interjecting

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the member for Flinders, who is making interjections across the chamber, jumped out of an aeroplane to tell us how the solar industry was in free fall. Within days, we found that the figures on solar applications for the PVs were at record highs. Memo to the member for Flinders: look before you leap.

If we look at the coalition policy approach in this area, we can see that there is scant evidence that they recognise the importance of the scale of the challenge, or the role that constructive programs and a comprehensive strategy can bring into play. Next month, I am pleased to say, we will start seeing the first energy rating labels appear on televisions, which are one of the fastest growing sources of household energy use. Households will soon be able to identify cost-saving, superefficient appliances through new 10-star labels. Last Sunday, in Melbourne, I was pleased to announce, with the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, the Green Precincts Fund—a commitment of some $15 million to support at least 10 high-profile energy and water saving projects around Australia. We have launched Green Precincts—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Water savings—that is absolutely right, as the member opposite interjected.

Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my point of order is that this minister has no credibility as the minister for the environment.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McEwen will excuse herself from the chamber for one hour under 94(a).

The member for McEwen then left the chamber.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Despite a team that some of us here support not going quite as close to the grand finals as it possibly could, we were very pleased to launch the Green Precincts project at Windy Hill in Melbourne—home of the Essendon Football Club. It is also a community facility where families come to kick a footy around with their kids. They will be installing an innovative 800,000-litre water storage system under the oval and utilising other renewable energy technologies. Good on you, Bombers. It is a fantastic program that is delivering on one of this government’s election commitments. These are responsible and positive measures that we are taking now, like the response from the community and like the 2,200 schools that are already registered to become solar schools. This government is delivering on energy efficiency and tackling dangerous climate change.