Biography
Kellie joined ACOSS in 2017 to provide expert policy advice and advocacy in energy and climate change. For the last ten years, Kellie managed WWF-Australia’s climate program where she specialised in international climate negotiations, domestic climate and energy policy, and raising awareness of climate change issues and policy solutions within the Australian community. She has strong skills in cross sector collaboration and political advocacy, gained from working as a senior political adviser, and at the United Nations, government, academia and the not for profit sector. She has collaborated with scientists, researchers, businesses, unions, climate groups, and community members to develop long-term plans and policies and build support among decision-makers for a cleaner, more sustainable future. Kellie has a Master in International Business and a Bachelor of Science.
AFFORDABLE CLEAN ENERGY FOR PEOPLE ON LOW INCOMES
ACOSS and the Brotherhood of St Laurence undertook a series of analysis in 2018 to examine how to ameliorate energy price impacts on low-income households as we transition to cleaner energy.
Our first two reports found that, with the right settings, an emissions reduction mechanism for the energy sector could help reduce energy prices for everyone under low, medium and high emissions reduction scenarios. But, savings were not as large under high emission reductions scenario and low-income households continue to pay disproportionately more of their income on energy.
Our third report modelled a number of policy solutions that could reduce the amount that people on low incomes spend on energy to reduce their energy stress and support a faster transition to clean energy.
The results showed that measures focused on reducing the size of energy bills (investment in energy efficiency in homes and implementing a fair regulated retail price) and improving people’s capacity to pay (increasing Newstart and better targeted concessions) have a positive impact on reducing energy costs for people on low incomes.
Energy Efficiency was found to provide the greatest benefits. Investment in energy efficiency could provide annual savings from $289 apartments to $1,139 for homes. It could reduce energy expenditure as a percentage share of income for lowest-income households from the current 6.4% to 4.1%.