Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. I refer the minister to comments made by Scott Humphreys, renewable energy consultant at Eco-Kinetics, who states:

I’ve gone over the figures and estimate our sales to reduce by around 85 per cent taking into account new sales strategies. The loss of sales will therefore filter through the industry and inevitably lead to higher prices and job losses, including mine.

Will the minister now apologise to Mr Humphreys? Will he save his job? Will he reverse this disastrous decision?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Formerly working families!

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Bowman is now warned!

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I think it is time to lay out for the House the history of the support for the solar industry in this country over the last two decades and make very clear that the posture of the former government—those now sitting opposite us—has never been to have significant support for solar, none whatsoever. As I recall, you were always supporting nuclear, not solar. It was your former leader who made it perfectly clear, as I recall—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will refer his remarks through the chair.

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

that renewables were on the margin, not in the centre of this debate. I listened carefully to the question that the honourable member put.

Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr Speaker: would you encourage the minister to address his remarks through the chair.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have. The minister knows that he was to refer his remarks through the chair. I did that. The member for Aston may not have heard because of the hubbub around him.

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