Alternative Technology Association (ATA) has condemned the Victorian Government’s decision to continue excluding ceiling insulation from its VEET energy subsidy scheme.
The consumer advocacy group says the move by Michael O’Brien, the Minister for Energy and Resources, would force low-income families to endure another summer of high energy bills.
Ian Porter, the ATA’s chief executive, said insulation was by far the best way to improve a home’s energy efficiency and could save an average family hundreds of dollars in power bills a year.
The Minister said last month that his decision to exclude ceiling insulation from the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target for six months was because of problems encountered in the Federal Government’s former scheme.
“The Minister’s understanding of this is completely misguided. Unlike the federal scheme, the Victorian VEET is well regulated and installers are well monitored,” Porter said.
“This was a political decision, and to blame an irrelevant and long extinct federal scheme is clutching at straws.”
“The only similarity with the federal scheme is that its absence continues to leave Victorian households in the lurch. Installing ceiling insulation in Victoria is no riskier than any other minor home modification.”
Porter said low-income households, the aged and people with special medical needs would be hit hardest without insulation this summer.
“This government came to power promising action on cost of living. Helping households install ceiling insulation is one of the ways it can deliver on this promise, and it has again refused to act.”
The ATA is a not-for-profit consumer-based organisation promoting renewable energy, water saving and sustainable building design.
