ASBEC President The Honourable Tom Roper has written an open letter to Commonwealth Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet expressing his 'sorrow and anger' at the Government's decision to break its election promise on tax breaks for Green Buildings.
He has expressed his concern about government/industry relations for the future.
"Many of our members have already contacted us, concerned at what this broken promise means for future Government / Industry relations. You will remember that it was industry that requested the programme be delayed to a July 1st 2012 starting date, to improve its design and effectiveness. Following the April 2011 announcement of an Industry / Government Roundtable by your colleague, the Assistant Treasurer, the Hon. Bill Shorten, the programme remained in the forward estimates," he wrote. Roper said that what would have been a comprehensive plan to reduce emissions has been restricted to the carbon price and he added that ASBEC's report produced after the Roundtable was ignored.
"ASBEC's 2010 Second Plank Update report identified some 46 mega tonnes of CO2-e emissions reductions through improved buildings energy efficiency, the quickest and easiest reduction to improve the economy's carbon foot print. The work undertaken by both the Centre for International Economics and the Allen Consulting Group was made available to your Department and the Government."
"This has been totally ignored in the statement made in Part 1 of Budget Paper No. 2 (page 42), where it is claimed that the scheme "would have driven higher cost abatement than that delivered by the carbon price." Our estimation, through our work on the Tax Breaks scheme and our Second Plank Update report, is in the order of $12 a tonne."
Roper finished the letter by expressing his disappointment in Australia's position in comparison with other nations.
"It diminishes Australia as a leader in climate change mitigation, in contrast with major programmes in the United States and Europe. It damages the thinking that has been part of the National Energy Savings Initiative and the work done by and for your Department on White Certificates."
