A Grattan Institute study last year found 4 million homes across Victoria and NSW had less than $15,000 in liquid assets, making it financially difficult for them to fully electrify.
It also found low-income households, who are struggling to upgrade to efficient electric appliances, spend 6.4 per cent of income on energy bills, compared to wealthy Australians who spend 1.5 per cent. And although the average house with solar panels saves $117 a year on electricity, about 37 per cent of Australians earning more than $90,000 a year have solar panels, compared to 20 per cent of people in financial stress.
Griffith has previously called for a government-backed scheme modelled on HECS university loans that would allow Australians to borrow money and upgrade their homes with repayments not due until their incomes remain above pre-set levels. The ABC on Wednesday reported the government was giving “serious consideration” to that idea to reduce upfront capital costs for consumers.
He says he has also been speaking with the government about “property contingent” loans to help homeowners decarbonise, but stressed it needed to be complemented by a range of other policies.
“We are working with the government on a high level to help write a very ambitious tax policy and finance policy for electrification,” Griffith said.
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“[One of those options is] in effect you can borrow money against the house and roll it over until the change of property,” he said. “Every property sells every seven years or so, so if we’re going to a run a Ponzi real estate scheme in this country, we might as well make it do good.”
The Reserve Bank has also noted access to “green finance” needs to grow for Australia to meet its climate emission targets, with banks increasingly reporting a growth in green loans. The country’s largest lender, Commonwealth Bank, said it had seen a “huge increase” in the uptake of electric vehicles and reported a “high level of consumer interest” in purchasing environmentally friendly products in the next three years.
The lender offers mortgage holders cheaper loans to upgrade their homes, but Griffith wants a government-backed comprehensive plan that targets a diverse range of people, including homeowners, renters, low-income households and self-funded retirees.
About 42 per cent of the energy grid is powered by renewables. State, territory and federal governments offer a range of rebates, including for solar panel, battery and EV purchases.
On Tuesday, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced a $5.4 million grant for the Electrify 2515 project, spearheaded by Griffith, to allow residents in the northern suburbs of the NSW Illawarra region convert gas appliances to electric ones and purchase subsidised home batteries.
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Bowen’s office said “the Albanese government is already driving down household and business energy costs and making homes and businesses cheaper to run” through a $1.7 billion package to ease the cost of living through energy saving upgrades for homes, businesses and social housing.
Australian National University economist Bruce Chapman, architect of the HECS scheme, has been working with Rewiring Australia on a suite of policies to take to the federal government.
“If you don’t have money available to electrify your household, this costs you,” Chapman said. “Once you’ve got alternative energy sources like solar panels, your electricity bills will fall. The current electrification favours people who are advantaged in an income sense.”
Bowen on Tuesday said the nation’s energy ministers had agreed to embark on a “consumer energy roadmap” to put households in charge of driving the renewable energy rollout.
The goal, he said, was to help consumers use the energy “they have on their roof, they have in their driveway, […] to make sure that they’re maximising their financial benefit as well as their emissions reduction”.
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