Australians want the Albanaese government to give more credence to electrification of the nation as a result of the fuel crisis.
After weeks of dealing with a fuel crisis more than half of Australia is hoping to see the nation become more reliant on local energy sources.
And there are growing expectations it will impact the way the nation views its housing.
A new YouGov survey commissioned by the Climate Council and the charity Sunrise Project covering more than 1500 people across the nation has found 54 per cent of us want to see a faster shift to clean energy, with greater reliance on electrified housing and vehicles garnering even higher support.
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Respondents were most in favour of the Albanese government supporting home energy initiatives, with 75 per cent backing the idea of making solar batteries more affordable for households and 79 per cent wanting support to access better insulation and more efficient appliances.
It also found 65 per cent want electric vehicles to be more affordable, and 62 per cent would like there to be more electric vehicle charging stations.
The survey was completed from April 14-20.
Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the survey responses indicated a significant share of Australians were aware of the role that less reliance on fossil fuels could have on household budgets.
Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie says households are watching their budgets, and the way the nation approaches its energy security is a growing factor.
“The cost-of-living crisis has obviously been going on for a number of years now, and the war in Iran has brought it to everyone’s front of mind that Australia is still very exposed to fossil fuel costs going up,” Ms McKenzie said.
While a petrol excise cut had reduced costs in the short term, she said the longer-term solution to fuel expense issues was making better use of natural sources of energy via solar uptake and battery uptake as well as more electric appliances and vehicles.
“That helps insulate Australia from future shocks,” Ms McKenzie said.
“We know that one of the biggest uptakes (of electric vehicles) is in outer suburban Sydney and Melbourne, where there are large commutes and that’s also where batteries and solar have really high uptake.”
A mix of rising interest rates and years of surging Australian property prices in most major capitals, though there are signs this is now changing, have also driven more families to affordable outer suburban areas to find a house they can pay the mortgage on.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Jacob Caine says there will be a “rapid shift” towards homes that make the most of solar power.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Jacob Caine said Australians were increasingly aware the “most expensive home is the one you can’t afford to live in”.
He is expecting more Australians to prioritise solar panels and batteries, full-electric and energy efficient designs as well as homes that support electric vehicles.
“We are going to see a rapid shift, particularly in the context we find ourselves today with a housing affordability crisis and a cost of living crisis which is being exacerbated by a war in a foreign country which is having an outsized impact on the cost of everything in Australia,” Mr Caine said.
He added that NSW real estate sales were currently trialling, on a voluntary basis, the disclosure of home energy efficiency scores against the National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS).
The federal government recently noted that 350,000 households, small businesses and community groups had installed batteries for energy storage in the past 10 months under the Cheaper Home Batteries Program.
Australia’s extensive solar uptake is being bolstered by rising demand for solar batteries.
The nation also has 4.3 million rooftops with solar panels on them now.
“The home battery program that has been in place since last July has been a runaway success, and the continuation of that will be a very important contribution,” Ms McKenzie said.
She added that it was believed Australia had saved about 15 million litres of fuel from its existing 1.3 million electric vehicles on the road, and that had softened the blow of the latest fuel crisis — but also demonstrated the scope for even better resilience in the future.
Ms McKenzie said if the government didn’t continue to support solar, battery and electric vehicle adoption across the country, the nation would remain “very exposed to shocks” in the future.
Ms McKenzie added that they had concerns the Albanese government might change the Fringe Benefits Tax’s application to electric vehicles at next week’s federal budget. It currently does not apply.
“And the majority of people making use of that policy are those that are outer-suburbs people, who have significant commutes and have done the math and calculated it will save them money,” she said.
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