As part of Solar Citizens’ “Raise the Roof: Unlock Solar for Renters” campaign, renters gathered at Victoria Park on April 30 to highlight the need for government action to assist renters to obtain access to cheaper energy.
Australia leads the world in rooftop solar, with panels on more than 4 million homes. More than half of the population misses out, including the 9 million people, a third of the population, who rent or who live in apartments.
Many apartments are also very inefficient making it hard to heat or cool.
As the energy crisis deepens, the result of the illegal Iran war, Solar Citizens thought there would be some relief in the budget. However federal Labor did not deliver any major funding for investment in household energy security.
Heidi Lee Douglas, spokesperson for Solar Citizens, said with cost-of-living pressures “this budget should have done far more to help people power their homes and cars with our most abundant, accessible and secure natural resource — sunshine backed by storage”.
Douglas said energy security means “reducing dependence on imported fuels and volatile global energy markets” and the fastest way to do that is through rooftop solar, batteries, energy-efficient homes and electric vehicles.
She said the Fuel Security Program does “little to further the electrification agenda”.
Solar Citizens welcomed the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts. “Our proposal to accelerate depreciation for landlord investments in rooftop solar and batteries would have been a complimentary tax change for this budget to make our tax system fairer,” said Douglas.
“Accelerating depreciation from 20 to five years would significantly improve the financial equation for landlords and deliver major savings for renters,” she said.
Economic modelling found that if 30% of rental properties installed rooftop solar and battery storage by 2030, renters could save between $27 billion and $57 billion nationally over the next 20 years — equivalent to around $38,000 to $45,000 in household energy savings.
Douglas said that thousands of people, including renters, landlords, multicultural community leaders and housing advocates, have called for this “simple tax change to encourage landlords to invest in rooftop solar, efficient appliances and batteries for rental homes.”
[For more information visit www.solarcitizens.org.au]