Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) 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 he made on ABC radio on 19 May 2008, where he stated in regard to the solar rebate:

I don’t agree with the reasoning that we are cutting back the number of people who are going to apply for it. It’s true that we’re cutting back the number of people who are entitled to apply for it, but that’s not cutting back the number of people that are entitled to apply for it.

What did the minister mean by this statement?

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 her question, and I point out to the House that, when the demand for this solar panels program and the rebate were seen to be heavily overheating, the responsible course of action was to ensure that the generous rebate went to those who needed it most. One of the things that intrigues me about this debate is that we are really trying to get a little bit too clever with the words that people utter.

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Mirabella interjecting

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

And in doing that—

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You’re so clever no-one knows what that means!

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

The member for Indi has asked the question. The minister has the call.

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

I refer to comments from the opposition’s environment spokesman, Mr Hunt, on ABC radio this morning when he said the program was designed to be demand driven and not capped. That is the essential point here. The government has provided caps of some 6,000 rebates for Australians who are in a position, to who ought to be able to and who want to put solar panels on their roofs. Under the policies of the former government, the rebate that was available without any means testing would have used up the allocation of funding for that program within a remarkably short period of time. To explain even further, our expectation is that Australians who earn below $100,000 will seek to take advantage of the means test and take the rebate. We will monitor the demand for this program closely. We also anticipate that Australians will seek to take advantage of the other programs that the government has and as well show their enthusiasm for solar energy and seek to have solar panels on their roofs.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the statement from the former Prime Minister, Mr Howard, of 9 May 2007 indicating that it was indeed uncapped.

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

The member for Flinders will resume his seat.

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Mirabella interjecting

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

The member for Indi is warned.