Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's solar industry is strongly regulated and it has regulations in place to oversight workplace health and electrical safety standards in relation to solar voltaic systems. To be eligible to receive support under RET, small-scale systems have to meet stringent safety standards, including adherence to relevant Australian standards and all relevant Commonwealth, state, territory and local government laws and regulations. In particular, in the case of Well Being Green, which was referenced by the member for Parkes, it was not that the work was substandard; it was an issue where one company was not honouring its arrangements with its partners. This is not something that would be isolated insofar as there would be situations in all spheres of commerce where there would be parties that do not seek to honour what their partners do and the law needs to step in. That is what we have effectively sought to fix up in the reforms that are being brought on by the minister for climate change.

The regulator has inspected and finalised reports for over 3,000 installations, reinforcing the point I just made, and passed on issues of noncompliance to the Clean Energy Council and state and territory agencies for further enforcement. I note that public inspection results indicate that only about four per cent of systems were considered unsafe, hardly suggesting a widespread problem with compliance as has been suggested. My problem with the coalition is that they have gone out of their way to highlight a problem and claim they have got an affinity for the industry, but when it comes to helping out they are nowhere to be seen. There is $500 million ripped out of industry assistance under their plan. They never voted for the steel transformation plan. They sneer at efforts to protect auto workers. They move motions against wind turbines and the sector that is supporting them. And now we have this.

The member for Parkes can talk about financial stress. The only thing that is causing stress is this constant campaign of fear and negativity that is being played by those opposite in trying to undermine confidence in certain sectors across the economy. From my point of view, they have a vested interest in the failure of these industries and the loss of jobs that follows it. The RET has been highly successful in helping households, small businesses and community groups to address or play a part in addressing climate change. Over 500,000 rooftop solar panel systems and over 200,000 solar heat pump water heaters have received support under the scheme since it has been expanded.

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