JULIE COLLINS:
It's great to be here at Lindisfarne in my home suburb as the local member, but importantly also as the Small Business Minister. And it's great to have Assistant Minister Jenny McAllister with me, the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy. And of course Bodie from Dovetail Timbers, and it's great of Bodie's mum Di to lend us her front garden with the exhibit of the garden beds and the timber here that is salvaged and is being used.
What we’re going to hear about today is how we are as a government investing to save small businesses money, and to convert to more energy efficient uses in terms of their business and make savings that will be ongoing for their businesses. So I will hand over now to Jenny McAllister as Assistant Minister to talk about these grants, and then we're happy to answer some questions.
JENNY McALLISTER:
Thanks Julie, and thanks Bodie, for having us here and thanks Di, for the offer of your beautiful home. Look, the Albanese Government wants to make every watt count. For too long, in homes and businesses across the country, energy has been literally leaking out the doors and windows, or being wasted in inefficient appliances. There are so many opportunities for homes and businesses around the country if we can connect people to technology and finance that will mean they require less energy to operate and they can save energy, save on bills, and, of course, in the process reduce emissions.
Today we're announcing the first tranche of a series of grants for small businesses across the country. From Hobart to Darwin, we will see small businesses making investments supported by a government grant to improve the energy performance of their business. That might mean a small supermarket replacing its refrigeration cabinets for something more efficient, it might mean a motel upgrading its heating and cooling arrangements with more efficient appliances. And in the case of the factory that Bodie runs, it will mean connecting the factory to mains generation and, importantly, stopping the use of a petrol generator which was costing the business many thousands of dollars a year.
These kinds of investments offer real promise, permanent reductions in energy use, savings for small businesses that can then be reinvested into the business, creating, doing more for the local economy, and doing more for local job creation.
I'm really pleased to be here today and to be talking about this with Bodie and interested to hear a little more about what it will mean for his business, but I want to say this final thing. This is an area that has been entirely neglected by the Coalition Government over their near decade in office. Across the country, businesses and households have been crying out for support to make these kinds of changes.
In addition to the grants we're announcing today, our last budget contained a $1.7 billion package. A package that will support households to access the finance they need to put in more efficient appliances and improve their homes. The package will allow our social housing upgrades to be completed in partnership with states and territories. It will provide funding for local government to improve the performance of community facilities that they run on behalf of local communities, and importantly, also includes a tax concession, a decarbonisation boost that will provide an additional concessionality for small businesses that make investments over this financial year in energy performance.
We want to make every watt count, we want to remedy the years of neglect under the previous government, and I'm very proud to be announcing this most recent instalment of our commitment on these fronts. Did you want to say a couple of words?
BODIE CAVANAGH:
Well, I'd say that the –
McALLISTER:
I'll let you jump in.
CAVANAGH:
Okay, sure. Look, I would like to say that the grant that's been offered today has been ideal for our situation. We've been able to excitedly focus in on where the energy efficiency can come from, and just looking at numbers, it's been amazing too, to be able to say ‘Well, that's in excess of $8,000 worth of diesel we'll be saving with a relatively small project.’ So that's been super, super positive and exciting to work towards now.
JOURNALIST:
Do you want to run us through exactly what you're using the money for?
CAVANAGH:
The main expense of the project is in putting mains power, connecting to the hydro network in Tasmania. There will be some upgrades, we'll need to change over some of our motors on some of our equipment, improve the control systems, and yeah, pull it all together with all the hard work that we have to put in to, you know, get the infrastructure there.
JOURNALIST:
How much money have you been awarded to undertake the project?
CAVANAGH:
We've been given approximately $24,000 and we'll be putting a lot of our own blood, sweat and tears into it at the same time.
JOURNALIST:
So you're going to have to contribute financially to make the change as well or does this cover most of it?
CAVANAGH:
We've been building our business up for quite a time and working on some major projects, which has left us running on a fairly tight shoestring to pull everything together ‑ some really exciting projects, actually. So we looked at the project closely to ensure that we could afford it and we'll just be putting our own time and resources into it, which is significant, we already have quite a lot there lined up to really take advantage of it.
JOURNALIST:
Can you tell us a bit about what your business does and how long you've been operating for?
CAVANAGH:
So we started Dovetail Timbers in 2010, '09, and it was a very strong focus at that stage to create a business that was really ‑ had a closed‑loop, I guess. So, we used low‑value resources and looked at what options there were to develop products and markets to utilise them. We have found over that time that the garden beds were a really popular option. So these garden beds, yeah, use a lot of the resource that we've got, and now we're getting to the point where we've got that down pat and we have a new process online, coming online at least, which will utilise the waste from what we've been doing to date and that will, once fully established and operational, will create a carbon negative business which we will have certification for and, in turn, be able to sell carbon credits on international markets. Interesting enough, one of the big shortfalls with our steps forward was the fact that we were still using a lot of diesel in that process. So it's all coming together very nicely for us, which is great.
JOURNALIST:
Yes, I was going to ask, what excites you more? Is it the financial benefits of this grant or is it the fact that you can now get rid of diesel and create a more environmentally sustainable business?
CAVANAGH:
We've had a goal of having a carbon neutral business for a long time and now a carbon negative business. And it's been a big bugbear that we've had to use so much diesel up to date and that's simply due to having a limited budget to progress the business with. So even a small contribution, a relatively small contribution can make a big difference.
JOURNALIST:
Have you previously applied for any state government grants? Have you had any luck there?
CAVANAGH:
We have, yes.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think the state government is providing enough support to businesses?
CAVANAGH:
I've not been looking or considering that for a little while. I have been focused period on the project that we're working on, and it was just that I saw the energy efficiency grant and saw the need that we had and how that met with our means.
JOURNALIST:
What's the best way to make sure that businesses can see what grants are available?
CAVANAGH:
Look, I think it's a very hard process to get a broad cover on that. You have business owners that are very focused on their business with a huge range of skill levels, of backgrounds. So with my experience, I find it relatively straightforward to see what's out there. You know, I think if there was more manpower and, you know, no limits, then if you had people, more people on the ground, it would be amazing, more people going out. But, you know, there is that there as well. It's a really tricky one. I don't have the answers.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you very much. Can we just ask a couple of questions about Tassie in the program to either Julie –
COLLINS:
Depending on the question, we'll try to answer them.
JOURNALIST:
How many Tasmanian businesses are receiving funds and roughly how much in total?
McALLISTER:
There's a dozen businesses receiving funds, and the amount that's been allocated to Tasmania is in proportion to the number of small and medium‑sized enterprises here relative to the other states and the funding has been apportioned out in that way.
JOURNALIST:
What would you say in terms of the level of interest you've had nationally in the grants program? How does it compare relative to other grant schemes?
McALLISTER:
This is an area of policy that was really neglected under the previous government and, as a consequence, a lot of the small businesses are telling us that they really need assistance. We knew that this was a program that would receive enormous levels of interest and that is, in fact, what came about. There was a lot of interest in the program. This is the first tranche in a larger program, and we'd expect to be opening opportunities for further grants at some point next year.
JOURNALIST:
Are the states not doing enough to provide their own grants and is this an admission of that?
McALLISTER:
We work collaboratively with the states and territories, and I think the way that states and territories approach this is really up to them. Our focus is making sure that the Australian Government plays our part. It's why we've allocated a substantial investment in the budget to support not just small businesses, but also households, community facilities, in making some of these changes. It's also why we are developing a National Energy Performance Strategy. We know that this is an area where we can make real improvements. It can save money, but it is also important for our climate objectives. It's an area of focus for the government and regrettably an area that was largely ignored over the last decade under the previous government.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] Circuit and Family Court in the north west. So what is the Federal Government doing to make sure north west residents have equitable access to justice?
COLLINS:
Obviously as the Federal Government, we want to make sure that all Australians get access to the Federal Court, the Federal Circuit Court and the Family Court. My colleague, the Attorney‑General Mark Dreyfus, has been talking I understand to Tasmanians about what is happening on the north west coast. We want to make sure that all Australians, including Tasmanians living on the north west coast, get access to justice ‑ as should every Australian.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think it’s acceptable that people in Burnie, which is a major city in Tasmania, have to travel an hour forty to get to a court here?
COLLINS:
Look, there’s no doubt that we’ve inherited a situation that is difficult. And there’s no doubt that we’re working as quickly as we can to resolve it, and I have every faith that the Attorney‑General will be able to solve it as quickly as possible.