Release: Taxpayers Ripped Off by Curtin University 'Green Loan'
The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, a 75,000+ member grassroots advocacy group representing the nation’s taxpayers, today condemned the $120 million taxpayer-funded 'green loan' to Curtin University as an expensive, unconscionable waste of taxpayer funds that will do nothing to safeguard the environment or address climate change. Taxpayers will lend $120 million to finance solar panels, light globes and insulation as emissions reduction measures for Curtin University’s new student lodgings
"If this loan were a shrewd investment in energy efficiency, then the private sector or banks would have had no problem with underwriting it. Instead, hardworking taxpayers are being left on the hook so a small group of elitist ideologues can feel better about themselves. Australia accounts for just 1.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and Dr Alan Finkel, the Australian government's own chief scientist, admits that even a total elimination of this figure would make no difference to climate change.
"This loan means $120 million less for investment in infrastructure, services, or tax relief- all of which can deliver far better returns for the public. Taxpayers have already poured billions in corporate handouts for unreliable and costly wind and solar energy which has only increased our dependence on expensive natural gas and driven up electricity bills nationwide. It's time for the charade to stop."