The Hon Josh Wilson MP
Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy
Assistant Minister for Emergency Management
Federal Member for Fremantle
The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner
E&OE
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
FLYNN, ACT
MONDAY, 21 JULY 2025
Subjects: Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative, ACT Productivity Roundtable
ANDREW LEIGH, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR PRODUCTIVITY, COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY: Well, good morning, everyone. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner and the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Charities, Competition and Treasury. I went for a run up Mount Majura yesterday in minus three degrees and an experience common to many Canberrans of the winters here really striking to the bone. Canberra is a beautiful city, but a chilly city, too, and one that therefore benefits hugely from energy efficiency upgrades. We're here in the suburb of Flynn, which was gazetted in 1971 and the house behind us built in 1972. That means it had available to it the best building technologies of 1972 which, needless to say, are not the best building technologies in 2025. And that's why the Federal Government has been partnering with the ACT government and states and territories across the nation in order to improve energy efficiency in Australian homes. The home behind us has benefited from energy upgrades, including better insulation in the ceiling and a heat pump put in place to ensure that this home doesn't rely on gas. That's part of a commitment for the federal government to meet the net zero targets that we know we need to ensure that Australia does its bit to combat climate change. But at the very same time, these energy upgrades benefit the public housing residents that are in them by ensuring that they're warmer on those chilly Canberra days, and that they can make important savings on the energy bills. I'll now hand over to my friend and colleague, Josh Wilson, to say more about the program, and he'll then hand to Yvette and Suzanne to talk about the details from an ACT perspective. Josh, over to you.
JOSH WILSON: Thanks, Andrew and good morning, everyone. It is fantastic to be here with Andrew Leigh and colleagues from the ACT government to celebrate a milestone in the partnership between the Albanese Government and the Barr ACT Government when it comes to our Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative (SHEPI) at the federal level, and we're glad to provide funding to support the excellent work that the ACT government is doing to ensure that social housing tenants benefit from energy performance upgrades. As Andrew has pointed out, Australian housing that was built decades ago is not as efficient as housing that we build today, and that means that social housing tenants, some of the more vulnerable members of our community, experience housing that can be too cold in winter and too hot in summer, and in addition, they pay too much for the energy that they use. So, last year, when we delivered the first National Energy Performance Strategy, we followed that up with $2.2 billion in funding, including $800 million now through the SHEPI to see 100,000 social housing dwellings around Australia upgraded, meaning that those tenants enjoy more liveable housing, but also housing that is cheaper to operate, whilst making a contribution to bringing emissions down as we track towards net zero by 2050. it's really important that all Australians benefit from the kind of technology that can deliver cheaper energy prices but reduce emissions at the same time. And social housing tenants have missed out on that, partly because of the age of the housing stock, and partly because of their circumstances. The Albanese Government isn't going to allow that to happen, and we're really glad to partner with the ACT government that has leaned into this area. Quite remarkably, today, we've reached the milestone of 3,000 upgraded social housing dwellings in the ACT, on track to 5,000 here in the AC T, as I said, 100,000 Australia wide. It's a really important partnership. I'm very happy now to hand over to Minister Berry to say a bit more about what the ACT has been doing in this space.
YVETTE BERRY, ACT DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER: Thanks everyone for coming over today, and as you'll see behind me, a good example of some of the upgrades that will be happening into our public housing properties. The program includes community housing properties, as well. This home has the works. It has a energy efficient heating and cooling, energy efficient hot water system, as well as insulation in in the roof these homes. These homes, as we know, are not the warmest homes, and so putting all of these upgrades in provides some dignity, I think, to our public housing tenants in the ACT who can know that they're contributing to the ACT government and the federal government's net zero goals in future years. But saving a significant amount of money between $1,500 and $2,000 on average a year, immediate saving of $300 because they don't have to hook up to gas. And I just know that it's going to make a difference to the living outcomes of people who live in our public housing properties here in the ACT, as well as community housing. As was just said, we're at 3,000 now, which is a significant milestone, so we're on target to meeting that goal of 5,000 by the end of next year, and really excited to hear from public housing tenants what a difference it's making to their lives and what it's made a difference it's making to our Canberra community as well to meet those really important emissions targets. Now I’ll hand over to Minister Orr to give a little bit more detail on climate action.
SUZANNE ORR, ACT MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Hello, thank you. It's great to be here today with the 3,000 houses that we've been able to transition to a cleaner energy supply. It's really important, as we transition to net zero here in the ACT that we don't leave anyone behind, that we make sure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from what is a cleaner energy mix. So, it's pretty exciting to see that we've got the insulation. We're turning off gas. We're looking at how we can actually improve the housing for our social housing tenants. The 3,000 house today means that we've got the equivalent of 600 basketball courts of insulation going into our social housing stock, lots of new electric stoves, lots of new heating and cooling. And while everyone's made the point that this is great in the Canberra winter, it's also actually good for the summer, because it does get hot here, believe it or not, and so we'll see tenants benefit all year round. We're very grateful to the Commonwealth for this first stage of the SHEPI program, and looking forward to working with them on the second stage, where we come back with batteries and solar panels. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: what kind of guidance will you be providing tenants with to help energy efficiency?
BERRY: With these upgrades, I think, like everybody else, our tenants want to be part of making a change to climate and actually being able to provide these opportunities brings them in a part of the story. The information that goes with having a home like this on how to appropriately heat and cool, that will go with the tenants engagement as they move into these homes. Yeah, it's going to make a huge difference and I know that when they move into these homes, it is a game changer for them. It makes a huge difference to their liveability. And as I said, it just provides that additional dignity of being part of a bigger picture.
JOURNALIST: And how much do you estimate each individual tenant will save?
BERRY: It varies, of course, but it's between $1,500 and $2,000 a year, and that will change depending on their usage and, of course, the size of the home and the different needs that they might have.
JOURNALIST: This house is empty. Are the upgrades only taking place between tenancies, or are they taking place with tenants in place?
BERRY: Yeah, this one, fortunately, was empty, and so at the same time as upgrading the home inside, so doing the kitchen and bathroom areas for a new tenant to move in, we were able to do the whole suite of works, which included the air conditioning and heating, the hot water system and the insulation. This home already had an electric stove, so didn't get the quite the full set, but certainly it is easier when the homes are empty. So, we have to work with our tenants on making sure we can put those upgrades into their homes and with as less disruption as possible. But like the list the rest of us, those kinds of upgrades do take some time and some communication with our tenants, and so we work pretty closely with them to make sure that it's not too disruptive. But they're proud of being part of this program and the difference that it makes to their lives.
JOURNALIST: Why has Labor chosen not to release 52 of the 53 business cases that were requested? Is there something to hide in this case?
BERRY: Not at all. There are decisions that the ACT government makes with regards to privileges and cabinet in-confidence conversations. The ACT government is very transparent and provides a number of detailed documents that come out from cabinet after 10 years. These particular documents are part of conversations that could interrupt confidential conversations around contracts, and that's some of the reasons why those particular documents haven't been released at this time,
JOURNALIST: And Labor supported the motion in the assembly. Why the change of heart?
BERRY: It's not a change of heart, it's a part of the provision of providing these documents that the ACT government can claim privilege on some of them, and it's for some of those specific reasons, that it could impact on the contract arrangements, which have to remain confidential and sometimes include conversations with third parties, so not just the ACT government. So that's just a couple of the examples of why, but certainly we want to be as transparent as we can with the community, keeping in mind that some of those conversations that are held are with other people, are third party individuals, and so we need to make sure we keep those confidence in mind as well.
JOURNALIST: These kind of insulation standards have been the norm in the OECD for decades. Why is Australia and Canberra so far behind?
WILSON: Well, Australian insulation standards are set and updated regularly. The issue here is just the age of housing stock. I mean, we've had energy efficient standards that have been placed during the course of the 21st Century. I think, as Andrew Leigh indicated, that this house was quite possibly built in the 1970s and so across Australia, if you're talking about that legacy housing stock, the average sort of home energy rating can be around two stars out of 10, rather than the six or seven stars that we would tend to see in new builds. So, it makes sense that we want to upgrade that housing so that everybody can have the benefits of energy efficiency in their homes. And that's what this program is about delivering. Making sure that the highest standard insulation, the highest standard energy efficiency appliances and in the stage two of the SHEPI, distributed energy resources like solar and batteries can be shared by all Australians, particularly the most vulnerable Australians, which include those who rely on social and community housing.
JOURNALIST: Can you talk a little bit about the ACT Business Roundtable and what you're expecting to come out of it?
LEIGH: Labor's got a strong productivity agenda. We need to get productivity growth going again after the worst productivity decade in the post war era, and that decade leading up to 2020. When Labor came to office, we were met with the biggest quarterly fall in productivity in 45 years. So, we set about turning that around, and part of that will be the productivity round table that takes place in the Cabinet Room in August. In the preparation for that, we've got a series of sector specific and regionally specific productivity round tables. Here in the ACT, we do some things differently from other parts of Australia. We've got fewer workers in mining and manufacturing, more in services and areas like the public sector. And so that means the ACT has something to bring to the national conversation around the productivity of public services, productivity of the services sector more broadly, and the insights that Canberrans can bring, I think, will be warmly welcomed by into that national conversation. I'm excited and being part of that as the Assistant Minister for Productivity, and really commend my colleague Katy Gallagher for her leadership in bringing together that conversation.
JOURNALIST: What do you think are the unique challenges in Canberra that you don't see anywhere else?
LEIGH: Oh, part of it is an economy which is strongly dependent on the public sector. We saw in the last election, the opposition proposing to cut 40,000 public service jobs, and the fact that that was rejected, not just in Canberra, but across the country, I think, speaks to the desire from Australians to see an effective public services driven by effective public servants. We need to make sure that the public service is making the best of productivity-boosting technologies such as artificial intelligence, while maintaining the sort of appropriate checks that are required around issues such as privacy and confidentiality. So, we understand the importance of getting productivity going, not just in the public sector, but also in the private sector with the investment in individuals, in infrastructure and institutions which will drive that.
JOURNALIST: The ACT is unable to levy payroll tax on Commonwealth public servants and Commonwealth public servants make up a significant part of the employment base in the ACT. Would you welcome a conversation between the ACT and the Commonwealth about a potential new financial arrangement to make up for that shortfall?
LEIGH: Well, in broad terms, we know the ACT has been a leader in state and territory tax reform, the work that's been done to take off insurance taxes and reform stamp duty here is work which economists are urging other states and territories to take up. So, I think the ACT approach to taxation has been focused on minimizing what economists call the excess burden, the deadweight cost of taxation and the Commonwealth is always up for a conversation with the ACT about how to make sure that we get the tax mix absolutely right.
JOURNALIST: With the ACT Business Roundtable, how did you decide what organizations to invite that you did?
LEIGH: We've cast a very broad net inviting organizations such as communities of work and the Canberra Business Chamber, recognizing that here in the ACT, most of the key organizations are rubbing shoulders with one another on a daily basis. That's one of the great things about our jurisdiction. People know one another. There's a strong collaborative spirit. I think that'll be warmly reflected in the conversation, in the productivity conversation
JOURNALIST: With wages and working conditions stagnating, why should the average Australian care about how productive they are?
LEIGH: Oh, we've got to get productivity growth going, because ultimately that's the main driver of living standards. If you go back to 1901, Australians had about 1/7 the level of productivity we have today. Put another way, it took the workers of Federation a whole week to achieve what a typical Australian worker can now achieve in a day. When productivity stagnates, that creates conditions which make it harder for wages to grow and for Australians to be generous, to people here and overseas. So, we've got to get productivity going again. We have a big productivity boosting technology and artificial intelligence hitting our economy at the moment, and making the very best of that technology in a way that bears in mind the competition issues and the ethical challenges that AI brings, is really one of the key issues that the Albanese Government's focused on.
ENDS