Green Loans and Green Start programs
Disclosure of information to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
The Department has disclosed information on payments made under the Green Loans Program to the Australian Taxation Office. This disclosure is consistent with the Guidelines on the use of data matching in Commonwealth administration, and has been arranged in consultation with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Assessors must declare income received under this Program.
The Green Loans Program has closed
As announced by the Australian Government on 21 December 2010, the Green Loans program closed on 28 February 2011. All processing of Green Loans assessor invoices were completed by mid‑September 2011.
About Green Loans
The Green Loans program was an Australian Government initiative rolled out nationally on 1 July 2009 to promote and assist energy efficiency initiatives in Australian homes by providing free home sustainability assessments. The assessments were voluntary and provided householders with valuable information and advice on the actions they could take around their home to save energy and water.
The key objectives of the Green Loans program were to:
- encourage wide-scale improvement of energy and water efficiency in existing homes
- provide sound advice to households on the most appropriate actions to reduce the environmental impact of operating their home, and
- reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Over 600 000 home assessments were conducted during the course of the Green Loans Program.
In July 2010, the Australian Government announced that the Green Loans program would cease and that it would transition to the new Green Start program. The Green Start program was to provide energy assessments to assist households to become sustainable through information and advice. The Australian Government made this decision following consideration of a number of reports and departmental assessments.
On 21 December 2010, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, the Hon Greg Combet AM MP and the Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, announced that the Green Start program, which was to succeed the Green Loans program, would not proceed and that the Green Loans program would continue until 28 February 2011.
The Australian Government made this decision following the receipt of a number of reports on the program and departmental advice. The department identified a number of issues that indicated that the risks associated with proceeding with the Green Start Program were too great.
For those affected by the Australian Government’s decision, $30 million was set aside from the Green Start Program to provide assistance to uncontracted Green Loans assessors and support accredited assessors to receive further training.
Further information on the assistance schemes is available at:
Green Loans: Review of Householder Perspectives
The Green Loans: Review of Householder Perspectives report examines the outcomes of the Green Loans program from a householder perspective. The review focuses on the effectiveness of household purchases and behavioural changes in saving energy and water.