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Households will be spared a national mandate to change their energy appliances or embrace electric vehicles after the federal government dismissed a call from its own climate advisor to set the new targets, amid a Labor debate on the need to cut the cost of living.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen dismissed the proposals from the Climate Change Authority to set the goals for the sale of cleaner cars and impose bans on gas connections to homes, saying the government was focused on “reliable and affordable” power.
The federal government rejected a call for nationally consistent laws to move people off gas appliances. Credit: Louise Kennerley
The decision came as Labor MPs urged Treasurer Jim Chalmers to deliver new policies to put downward pressure on the cost of living, such as by making federal assistance more widely available to Australians who currently miss out on the help.
The moves are another sign of the pressure within the government for policies that deliver cost relief and avoid placing any new burden on households while Chalmers and other ministers devise new measures for the May budget.
Chalmers made no comment after meeting the Labor caucus members on Thursday, but one of the MPs in the talks, Jerome Laxale, told his constituents that he asked the treasurer to extend the eligibility for federal assistance.
“Many more of you have been telling me that you’re struggling,” said Laxale, the member for Bennelong in Sydney, in a Facebook post to voters. “Our cost-of-living relief to date has been targeted and measured. For those eligible, it has helped and has been welcome.”
“Today, I asked the treasurer to consider widening the eligibility of some of these effective policies through the budget process. As the impacts of interest rates linger, I believe more Australians will require access to targeted, measured and effective cost-of-living relief.”
Existing government assistance measures include the energy bill subsidies unveiled last December and opposed by the Coalition in parliament in a vote on whether to restrict coal and gas exports and increase local energy supply.
While the energy bill subsidies were targeted at people on the Age Pension and federal income support, Laxale’s call suggests these or other policies could be extended to more households.
Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen delivered the government’s annual climate change statement in parliament on Thursday. Credit: Alex Ellninghausen.
The Climate Change Authority, an independent agency that provides expert advice to government, called on the Albanese government in its Annual Progress Report to do more to meet its emissions reduction targets.
It issued a total of 42 recommendations to boost climate action, 39 of which the government either agreed with, agreed in principle or merely noted.
Greens leader Adam Bandt backed the authority’s call for bans on petrol cars and gas connections.
“It’s very disappointing that Labor won’t listen to the Climate Change Authority and help homes get off gas and get into electric cars,” Bandt said.
Grattan Institute’s Getting Off Gas report, released in August, found rising gas use risked the nation’s climate goals. The 5 million houses with a gas connection account for about 17 per cent of Australia’s fossil fuel consumption.
A ban on gas connections will apply to new houses and apartments in Victoria and the ACT from next year. But other states have not indicated any plans to follow suit and the Albanese government said it would work with states to increase uptake of cleaner appliances, including through its $1.7 billion Energy Savings Package.
Bowen also dismissed the authority’s call for a binding target that drives uptake of electric vehicles to 100 per cent of new car sales by 2040.
The European Union, Canada, UK and Japan have pledged for 100 per cent of new passenger car sales to be electric by at least 2035.
Official figures released on Thursday showed Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions rose four million tonnes in the 12 months to June as the economy continued to bounce back from the COVID-19 contraction, hitting a total of 467 million tonnes.
While the rise is at odds with public claims about cutting emissions, the government insists greenhouse emissions are on track to fall 42 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 – just shy of Labor’s 43 per cent target.
Bowen and Transport Minister Catherine King have pledged to introduce a new electric vehicle policy that encourages carmakers to sell more electric vehicles. Consultation is under way on fuel efficiency standards to limit average emissions, measured in grams of CO2 per kilometre, produced by the overall fleet of vehicles sold into the market by a manufacturer, to encourage them to sell more EVs.
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