The loan of up to $10,000 is to be repaid at 2% of annual income with a minimum repayment of $300 per Year.

Some of the items households will be able to purchase under this plan include:

1. Solar Panels

2. Rainwater tanks and greywater recycling systems.

3. Insulation and shading devices

4. solar, heat pump and high- efficiency gas hot water systems

5. Energy efficient lighting

GREEN LOANS – GENERAL INFORMATION.
- Green Loans program is alive and well (contrary to some reports in yesterday’s press).
- The Green Loans Home Sustainability Assessment program will become the national benchmark for all home assessments.
- The Government sees this program as a creator of sustainable jobs and a national asset.
- DEWHA is looking for certainty of quality assessments and a high volume of assessments!

ASSESSOR ACCREDITING ORGANISATION
The first organisation has been offered a contract as an Assessor Accrediting Organisation – it is ABSA.

ASSESSMENT SOFTWARE
The HSA software is still under development by the CSIRO.
Alan Pears (Adj Prof of Sustainability at RMIT) is also working on the project.
The questions to be asked by the HSA are currently under review and should be finalised shortly.
The householder self assessment will not be available for the first few months, so HSAs will be able to claim $150 for the assessment and $50 for the self-assessment (plus any relevant travel allowances).
The software will continue to be developed over a period of time.

CONTRACTS
The DRAFT assessor contract has been uploaded onto the website.
Contracts with DEWHA will be with INDIVIDUALS – not companies.
Individuals will then nominate a bank account into which funds can be deposited by DEWHA for assessments conducted.
The timelimit for the assessment has been removed from the website.

BOOKING SYSTEM
A booking system package has been selected and will be implemented to support the program.
A call centre will provide backup and access to the scheme for householders without web access.

The HSA may return to the household to offer services once the contract with DEWHA has been completed,
BUT THE ASSESSMENT MUST BE INDEPENDENT OF COMMERCIAL INTEREST.

There are a number of State Government programs that lend themselves to a bi-lateral service.
Unless this has been pre-approved by DEWHA and the State Government, auditors MUST NOT provide another service whilst conducting the HSA.

Green Renovation Pack (replacing CFLs and shower roses) has been replaced with a voucher system.
You will not be replacing CFLS and shower roses.
Auditors will not be involved in the voucher system, they will be sent directly to the householder with their report.

CEILING INSULATION
Auditors are NOT required to assess a ceiling to view insulation. However, DEWHA will not prohibit auditors from doing so.
Clearly there are issues about ladders, safety, insurance, etc. We will have these ironed out before the next 2 day training.

HSA TRAINING COURSE
The HSA course will ultimately become an accredited course (possibly Certificate IV).
You will be given recognition of prior learning for the training completed with us.

DEWHA will not restrict the number of HSAs that are being trained around Australia.

MARKETING Of SERVICES
Green Loans Program is a BRAND owned by the Commonwealth.

CLARITY
Assessors will be known as Home Sustainability Assessors – not a GREEN LOANS Assessor.

AUDIT SERVICES
Services will be audited by an independent auditor from time to time.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
This new profession will have its own accrediting body (in the first instance ABSA), they will develop a number of CPD (continuing professional development) units to keep you up to date. Other organisations can also develop CPD units and offer them to you commercially.

PILOT PROGRAM
The pilot will be approximately 2 weeks only.
It will be in 2 or 3 locations, certain postcodes only. The post codes have not yet been announced.
The booking system will be in place, HSAs IN THE SELECTED POSTCODE AREAS, can offer their services.
They will need to become accredited, sign a contract with DEWHA and then conduct their business for a 2 week window.
The HSA will record information into a booklet which will then be forwarded to DEWHA.
The HSA will be paid as per the schedule of fees.

Research institutes will then interview households to determine their effectiveness.

POTENTIAL RESTRICTIONS ON POSTCODE
Whilst gathering information for the pilot, every participant was asked to nominate their postcode range.
A number of HSAs responded with ‘State wide’, ‘Metrpolitan area’ etc.
The Green Loans team are now considering restricting the number of postcodes in which a HSA can operate.

PROGRAM LAUNCH DATE
Currently envisaged to be early July.

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Partnership agreements are to be issued by early March.

The Prime Minister will announce as early as today the make-up of a committee to forge the way to a price on carbon, a signal of the government’s wish to gain the initiative on an issue that bedevilled its first term in office.

The committee is expected to include the Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, the Green’s climate change spokeswoman, Christine Milne, and academic experts.

In his weekly economic note yesterday, the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, laid out the government’s  direction: “I’m looking forward to the new parliament adopting a more co-operative approach to tackling the key issues for our future, like putting a price on carbon and delivering certainty for business.” It was the first mention of a price on pollution in Mr Swan’s note since February.

The cause of a carbon price was given a boost on Friday when Treasury decided to release, after freedom-of-information requests, its Red and Blue books of incoming advice to the government and opposition.

The briefs delivered a strong endorsement of using market mechanisms – such as emissions trading scheme – to curb pollution levels. The Blue Book, which Treasury would have handed to the Coalition had it won power, strongly queried its “direct action” plan to tackle climate change without a carbon tax or trading scheme.

Cutting emissions to 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 “cannot be achieved without a carbon price unless significant economic and budget impacts are to be imposed”, the Blue Book said.

Yesterday Ms Gillard reiterated her offer for Coalition MP’s to sit on the climate change committee, an offer the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has rejected on behalf of his MP’s.

“We’re putting together a committee that is open to representatives of all sides of politics who agree that climate change is real and we need to price carbon in order to reach the targets we’ve set ourselves in 2020,” said Ms Gillard, who moved in to the lodge yesterday.

Mr Combet suggested on Thursday that he was likely to sit on the committee. “It’s obviously going to be a pivotal part of my work…and I’ll be closely involved with the development, or the discussion and the consensus building and the expert advice and the consideration of the policy options on how we develop a carbon price,” he said.

Source: Cool Sydney.