Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is that previously, under the former government, this was a five-year program. They had perfect notice that this program was oversubscribed and would have overheated and produced in the solar industry demand fluctuations such that it would have made this industry very difficult to be sustainable. The government has brought forward rebates, increased the number of rebates that are available and compressed a five-year program into a three-year program, thus providing for greater sustainability for the solar industry, something I have pointed out to representatives of the industry when I have met with them and heard their concerns. But we have done much more than that.

We have produced a plan for low-interest loans which will see householders able to put solar panels on their roofs with low-interest loans made available to Australian communities. We have an investment of half a billion dollars for Solar Schools, which will see Australian schools able to put solar panels on their roofs, a program which starts after 1 July. Additionally, we have an emissions-trading scheme and a renewable energy target—all things which will contribute significantly to the capacity of the solar industry, an industry we want to see succeed and an industry which we have the policy settings to support.

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