Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McEwen said that it is true and, from the data presented by the department, it is true that application numbers have gone up. We will see how many of them translate into installations, but what is most concerning is that we are getting much less bang for our government buck now. Application numbers have gone up but, because they are applications from a small group of households on smaller incomes, they are applications for smaller size systems. So every system that is getting installed today is 20 per cent smaller than those over the life of the program leading up to the budget. The government is still doling out $8,000 a pop to install a solar system, but we are getting 20 per cent less energy back. How is that good public policy, you might ask. How on earth is that good public policy?