Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My goodness! Senator McEwen has just very strongly claimed that the coalition government did not recognise climate change and did not do anything about it. I wonder, Senator McEwen, whether you could explain, if that is the case, why the Howard government introduced the world’s first Greenhouse Office in 1996, at the beginning of our term. For heaven’s sake, do not peddle that old line of Penny Wong, because it does not have any credibility.

The Howard government had a wide range of environmental policies, the highlight of which was their concern for renewable energy. We had very strong incentives for people to take up renewable energy. Here in Australia our options are limited. We do not have mountains with lots of snow, so we cannot use hydro power. Wind power options around this country are not available as they are in places such as Germany and Greece. But what we do have in Australia is lots of sunshine.

One of the things the Howard government did was recognise that solar power was the most important possible source of renewable energy in Australia. Accordingly, we developed policies to encourage people to use solar power for energy supplies to their homes. As part of the Howard government’s comprehensive energy policies, we developed the photovoltaic rebate, encouraging people to put photovoltaic cells on their roofs and generate power for their homes in that way using the power of the sun. The rebate encouraged many people to take up the option of using solar power. In fact, in 2000, some $50 million was provided, facilitating the placement of about 10,000 systems on people’s roofs. It was a very successful program—so successful in fact that last year the Howard government doubled the rebate, from $4,000 to $8,000 per unit, which was given to people to encourage them to put in these units.

That program was very successful and led to a great increase in the uptake of solar panels. For you in the ALP to now means test that rebate at $100,000, which you claim is a millionaire’s income, is the biggest backtrack I have ever heard from any party in the history of Federation on a policy which they said was a key policy and was absolutely inviolable. The backtrack by the ALP on this policy is not only a broken promise of the last election but a complete break in faith with the people who supported you—a total breach of the faith put in you by so many people around Australia.

The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, has admitted that this policy was introduced without any consultation with industry; yet is has wrecked the solar power industry. As a result of your policy, apparently, production in photovoltaic panels is diminishing at an alarming rate. Orders have dropped by 80 per cent. There has been a loss of jobs in the industry, as well as a collapse in confidence. I am completely amazed that Senator McEwen, who has been here in the Senate for, I think, at least six years—