Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. How is the government delivering on its commitments to support solar power in Australia?

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 member for Solomon for his question—and it is true that he has a sunny disposition which we on this side of the House appreciate! The support provided by the Rudd Labor government for solar power and for renewable energy across the board is unprecedented. Yesterday in Sydney I opened the Asia-Pacific Regional International Solar Energy Society Conference and had the pleasure of announcing that the government will fund half of a $6.6 million solar power station to be built in Alice Springs as part of the Australian government’s Alice Solar City project. The Alice Springs Ilparpa solar power station will become a significant landmark in the region, with 26 fourteen-metre-high solar concentration dishes built to the south of Alice Springs. It has got Australian designed technology using dishes to track the movement of the sun throughout the day, concentrating the sunlight onto highly efficient photovoltaic cells and contributing around 1,800 megawatt hours of clean power to the Alice Springs grid each year. I know the member for Lingiari will agree with me that this project will further enhance Alice Springs’s contribution and its position as a showcase town for renewable power generation in Australia.

This commitment further underlines the additional $18.8 million the government have committed to create new solar cities in Coburg, in Victoria, and in Perth. That commitment comes at a time when the identification of green job potential, the time for being serious about renewable energy, is increasingly something which is being noticed, being written about and coming to our attention. We have seen the CSIRO and Allen Consulting Group report of June this year, Growing the green collar economy, which shows the significant potential for employment growth in sustainable trades and the clean technology workforce as we set about tackling dangerous climate change. That report identifies an increase of more than 10 per cent over 10 years in sectors with high potential environmental impacts—the potential for stable, green jobs if you have robust policy support for sustainable industries and renewable energy. The government believe that we need to produce significant opportunities for this renewable energy industry to grow and we need well-designed policies of substance that attach to that.

I have to say for the benefit of the member of Flinders, who has responsibility for this issue but is actually not in the House at this point in time—so serious is the opposition’s contemplation of the issues that their shadow minister cannot even stay in question time for the full duration of question time; he is bobbing in and out. This is the member for Flinders, the one that we know as the stunt master of the parliament, who jumped out of a plane with a parachute on to say that Australia’s solar industry was in free fall when in fact applications were at an all-time high. It is actually that absent member for Flinders—someone is scurrying out to bring him back into the House—who said, about the solar industry on 18 May, that we have seen the collapse of that industry ‘and that is not overstating it’. I would hate to see what happens when the member for Flinders does actually overstate something! This was at a time when applications for solar panel rebates were at an all-time high. But then he went on to say: ‘Few people, if any’—

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

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

I think it is a little bit late for the honourable member to come to the rescue of the member for Flinders—

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

The minister will resume his seat. The member for Dunkley on a point of order.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it is a bit rough, having a crack at a member who is not here, particularly—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! Order!

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Particularly when the minister’s cred is burning on solar.

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

Order! That is not a point of order and the member for Dunkley is warned! 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

The absent shadow minister for climate change and the environment said, ‘Few people, if any, are signing on to new solar power contracts.’ Let me put it on the record in the House that under the Rudd Labor government we will be providing more solar rebates in a single month than were committed to in a single year previously, but according to the absent member for Flinders few people are signing contracts. In his absence, I will not go on to say that the Evel Knievel approach to politics just will not do in the parliament any longer. Stunts will not suffice; what we need is substance. Those opposite had 12 years and they refused to increase the renewable energy target. They had 12 years and they refused to put a price on carbon. They had 12 years of denial and delay on climate change. The Australian public want substance on the matter of delivering solar power and solar energy, and that is what this government is providing.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.