Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to congratulate Senator Boswell on the question that he put today, which is the topic of this debate. His question goes right to the heart of trust in this government. He asked why, given that the Productivity Commission can release all modelling related to COAG reform, the government cannot release all the modelling related to their clean energy legislation. If it were not so frightening, it would be funny that part of Senator Wong's answer was, 'I am unclear how that is relevant.' She is very unclear about how it is relevant that one part of government can clearly and transparently release the economic modelling they use but this government cannot release all of the economic modelling on the most important piece of legislation that they have put before this house. The Prime Minister is quite right to call it historic. It is historic but it is a very sad day in Australia's history.

The Prime Minister promised us there would not be a carbon tax under a government she leads. We now have modelling where it is okay if they give us the bits and pieces that they feel like giving us but do not give out the full modelling so that it can be tested by the economic sector of Australia. How typical of this government. Of course, people do not believe that the government has given us the bits of the modelling data relevant to the new legislation; they believe, because of the government's history, that the parts of the modelling that are being given out are the bits that are convenient for this government. They do not trust them. Senator Boswell brought that point out very well and Senator Wong's response was disappointing but typical of the dishonest way that this government behaves.

I was somewhat amused by Senator Gallacher's comments regarding solar energy. Yes, Australians have put in large amounts of solar panels and solar hot water and solar heating devices. But he seems to have not noticed that in a number of instances those people have been defrauded by systems that were accredited by this Labor government. Why would we be surprised that there had been a failure in implementation of an energy-saving system by this government? He appears also not to be aware that in fact throughout Australia and most of the world the electricity grids are not capable of taking as much solar power as people generate. In most cases, and I am referring particularly now to South-East Queensland, the grids can only cope with 30 per cent of the grid power being energy that is put back into the system from solar energy. This means that, if you live in a street with no solar power, you are fine: your power can go back into the grid and you can get paid the feed-in tariff for doing that. If, however, you go ahead and put in solar power in a street where 30 per cent of the houses already have solar power, you will not be able to feed your solar power into the grid; you will not get the feed-in tariff.

Right now in South-East Queensland, it is taking up to 16 weeks for people to be connected up, from the time that their solar power systems go in until the time that they actually get paid for feeding the power into the grid. Part of the reason this is happening is that the South-East Queensland electrical authorities are desperately trying to pedal backwards so that they do not have to make the point that the Queensland Labor government, along with many other state governments and many other governments internationally, have neglected to point out to people who bought solar power units that there was a chance that they would not be able to get the feed-in tariff. It is another part of the nontransparency of this government. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.