Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to comment on the Save Our Solar (Solar Rebate Protection) Bill 2008 [No. 2] report. One of the problems with a government-dominated committee system is that the report does not actually reflect the evidence that came before the committee. The overwhelming majority of submissions came out saying strongly that the means test was a bad idea, that it had not worked, and that, quite apart from how many were taking it up, what it did do was reinforce the stop-start-stop nature of government support, or lack of support, for solar. As a result, accountants were saying to businesses: ‘We are not prepared to have a five-year business plan or a 10-year business plan because we have no certainty. This could be cut off again next year.’ What they overwhelmingly said was that, whilst they want the rebate reinstated in the way it was and to get rid of the means test, what they really wanted was a gross feed-in tariff to give certainty into the long term for industry. Overwhelmingly, businesses came before us and said that they had been planning on putting on more staff, expanding the business and so on and have not been able to do it because they now have no certainty.

The really interesting thing with this is that the government is facing an embarrassing situation. My understanding is that, since the budget, they have had around 6,000 applications and all the money that was budgeted is effectively gone—in four months what was effectively a year’s allocation is gone. What is the government going to do now? Is it going to say, ‘Our intention at the start was that it is overheating—that is, we are spending too much money on this’? It is actually the planet that is overheating, not anything else. So the upshot here is that the government have a situation where they have so many applications they have run out of 12 month’s budget in four months. What next? When are we going to have the announcement from the government saying that the rebate is over for this year? Or are we going to see an announcement from the government saying, ‘Next year’s budget allocation is going to be brought forward,’ which is clearly one thing they could do and should do in order to make sure that there is no stop-start again, because you will have a stop in a minute if you have spent all the money allocated in the first four months since the budget. What are we going to do? Wait eight months before the rebate starts again? What is the government going to do?

I put to the government, and particularly Minister Garrett: what are you going to do now? The solar rebate was overheating and now it has boiled over completely. They have spent the money and they have run out of their allocation for this year. Bring forward next year’s allocation at the very least so that things do not stop. More particularly, there has to be a huge amount of effort going into getting a national gross feed-in tariff because it is very clear the community wants to be enabled to take up photovoltaics. The community also wants to be enabled to go beyond rooftop solar and to have, for example, utility size solar thermal facilities.

I welcome Premier Carpenter’s announcement yesterday in Western Australia that he is bringing in a gross feed-in tariff, but again it is only at residential scale. We need it to be for utility scale as well. We need this to be rolled out on a large scale because the lie has been put absolutely to the claims that have gone on around this place for years that renewable energy is only a fringe dweller and cannot produce the kinds of loads we need. It not only can but would, if it were enabled to do so.

I respect the fact that the government have at least acknowledged that the submissions have overwhelmingly said a gross feed-in tariff is where people want to go. I am glad the government have acknowledged that the changes have simply meant that there are smaller systems and so we are not getting the maximum uptake of renewable energy that we could from the rebate that is being paid. But the big question hanging in the air for every solar business is: what is going to happen now that the rebate is fully taken up?

Could the government and Minister Garrett tell us: has the full amount been expended—applied for and effectively allocated? If so, what are you going to do about it? Is next year’s allocation going to be brought forward? Please announce it soon, because every one of the small businesses whom we have spoken to and who have put in submissions wants to know. If you have this massive application load now and they are refused on the basis that the allocation has run out, then that will dry up and these small businesses will be stuck for the next eight months—going out of business, having to put people off. It will just be reinforced that, as long as the solar industry is dependent on the whims of government ministers deciding on the basis of budget allocations whether they want to stoke or choke renewable energy, we are just going to have a situation where investors, venture capitalists in particular, are going to back away.

I think it is unfortunate that this report does not reflect the evidence that came before the committee more accurately. Nonetheless, I look forward to a gross feed-in tariff. I have a bill in front of the Senate and I am looking forward to the inquiry into it. But what we need right now is not only an acknowledgement from the government that there have been a lot of applications but the acknowledgement that the money has been expended. The question we want the answer to is: what is going to happen for the next eight months?