The Rudd Government must consider compensating the home sustainability assessors it has messed around and left out of pocket through its mismanaged Green Loans program, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Action Simon Birmingham said today.
The organisation representing assessors, and responsible for accreditation under the program, has put a range of proposals to Energy Efficiency Minister Penny Wong designed to address unresolved issues.
Among the suggestions from the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors (ABSA) is the need for ‘some form of recompense for costs of training, insurance etc for those assessors already in the system now deemed superfluous to need.’
“The Rudd Government must fix the mess it has created by overseeing the training of 9,300 assessors, all of whom have made significant investments only to learn the Government will not be signing contracts with nearly half of them.
“Reimbursing assessors for the costs of their training, insurance and police checks as ABSA suggests is something the Government must consider.”
Among other proposals put by ABSA is the suggestion that assessments be made compulsory for homes seeking other taxpayer funded support for energy and water efficiency measures, such as insulation and solar hot water.
“With taxpayers still footing the bill for home assessments, despite the axeing of Green Loans, ABSA’s suggestion is worthy of consideration as a possible way to ensure we at least get some value for money.
“Under current arrangements, taxpayers could be funding assessments for householders with no intention of making any changes to their energy or water consumption whatsoever, yet could also be subsidising insulation or solar systems in homes where greater efficiencies could otherwise be achieved.
“Senator Wong still has many issues to fix from the Green Loans mess left behind by Peter Garrett, and needs to start coming up with solutions. Considering ABSA’s proposals would at least be a start.”