Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I have been on my feet now for a good eight minutes, so for Senator Birmingham to now say that what I have been addressing, the questions that I have been raising, are not pertinent to his sense of what is compatible with this section of the bill is a little bit late, quite frankly. But he knows very well my line of questioning. I have been talking now for some eight minutes about solar energy. I have been talking specifically about the government's One Million Solar Roofs program and where the funding for that program is going to come from. You would think that in the last eight minutes he would have started to think about how he is going to respond to some of these questions, when in the next five minutes he will get the opportunity to do so.

To make points of order, pretending he has no idea what is going on and that I am in some other world with regard to this section of the bill, is a little bit ordinary, quite frankly. That is especially the case because, having been on the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications with him for the last 18 months or so, I know that he is quite engaged in this portfolio. I think I am right in saying that he is actually quite passionate about renewable energy and about the area of climate change—as opposed, perhaps, to some of his colleagues in the government. Senator Birmingham actually understands this issue and is on the record as being supportive of an emissions trading scheme. At that time he was adamant that that was the way that his party room was going to move. In fact, he said that they were going to do it better than the then Rudd government. But now they are not going to do it at all. They are going to introduce a direct action scheme and pretend that they never even imagined the emissions trading scheme.

It is on the record that Senator Birmingham was very much supportive of an emissions scheme but we will let that aside. Hopefully, Senator Birmingham will listen to my questioning in relation to the bill that is before us—that is, my questions in relation to solar roofs, solar schools and solar towns programs. Specifically, my questions are: where will the funding for the one million solar roofs program come from? Will low-income households be specifically targeted in a program of that sort? Will there be some kind of co-payment arrangement for households? How much abatement is expected from such a program?

Also, where will funding for the solar towns program come from? There is a solar roofs program, I understand, but there is also a solar towns program. Will there be regional towns? Will there be suburbs or local government areas in regional areas? Also, how much abatement is expected from that program?

There are the solar roofs program and the solar towns program. My final questions are in relation to where the funding for the solar schools program will come from. I am specifically interested in the solar schools program because that is an area I am very familiar with, having understood the over-$217 million investment that the last Labor government made in providing 5,310 schools to install renewable energy systems, rainwater tanks and a range of energy efficient measures into their schools.

Where will that funding for the solar schools program come from? Will it go exclusively to public schools or will it go to schools in low socio-economic status areas? How will it be determined which schools will get that funding? Like the questions in relation to the solar roofs program and the solar towns program, how much abatement is expected from the program?

I have been talking about three programs. I am sure that Senator Birmingham is very aware of the three programs that are part of his government's package. I am sure he is able to answer these three questions in great detail. I know he has great interest in this area, having been a supporter of the emissions trading scheme, and that he is, therefore, aware of all of the benefits that renewable energy provides by encouraging changes in behaviour—which is what occurs through an emissions trading scheme.

I will finish my remarks by highlighting that I, too, am interested in and passionate about renewable energy. I think it is the way of the future. I think that it is something that the opposition and the government could have some bipartisan agreement on. Where we differ is probably on how it is delivered and, certainly, on how it is funded. Cutting $450 million in MYEFO from ARENA is certainly going to leave the government very short in being able to deliver these three programs. So I will be very interested to hear from Senator Birmingham exactly how this is going to occur.