Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell. Is the minister aware that the Photovoltaic Rebate Program has been responsible for helping families in thousands of homes across Australia to install solar panels? Hasn’t this program assisted families to take action on climate change by investing in clean energy? Can the minister confirm that Channel 7’s Sunrise program is right when it says:

Our federal government has already slashed solar electricity rebates and is planning to phase them out completely by the middle of next year.

Why has the minister decided to phase out these programs? Why is the minister afraid to help Australian families to invest in solar energy by continuing the solar electricity rebate program?

Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome Senator Webber’s question, because she draws attention to a program that has and will roll out solar cells onto the roofs of both private homes and schools across this country. We are on target to achieve about 12,000. In the budget before the last one, this government extended that program because it is such a good program. It is a way of building what I call a bridge into the Solar Cities program.

We have increased the expenditure on the rollout of solar powering of communities through the Solar Cities program. For example, the Photovoltaic Rebate Program—or the solar roofs program, as I like to call it because people know what it is when you call it that—will have an expenditure of roughly $20-odd million. The Solar Cities program is nearly quadruple that; it is about $75 million. This is a massive ramping up of investment in the deployment of solar cells to create energy for households and also for schools.

In the last budget, I took a program that was terminating and extended it for a further two years. Labor went around saying that we had halved the rebates. The rebates have ensured that the number of homes that get solar energy cells put on roofs as a result of the extension of the program that I got through the budget last year will double. When we evaluated the program we found that we would get an even better uptake and rollout of solar technology with a lower grant. So yes, the grant is lower per house, but the number of houses that are getting the solar cells is doubling because the program is so well subscribed. So we are getting twice the number of solar cells for the same money.

I welcome the campaign by the Sunrise program. I welcome the fact that it is drawing attention to what people can do in their own homes to reduce their footprint. I am a great supporter of the program, and I am looking at how we can spread solar energy across the country. We have got the Solar Cities program. Thousands upon thousands of new homes will benefit in places like Adelaide and Townsville, where we have already committed to rolling out the Solar Cities program, and, over the next few weeks, I will announce at least two and possibly three more solar cities, which will see a massive expansion of solar energy being provided into homes across Australia.

In relation to PVRP, I am very keen to see a program to succeed PVRP that does what we did last time. I have extended it once already as environment minister. I am very keen to extend it again, but I am absolutely certainly we can improve it more. One of the problems at the moment is that it goes generally to very wealthy people. It cuts out middle Australia and it is virtually unaffordable for low-income Australians. I have said to the renewable energy industry that, when a replacement for the PVRP scheme is negotiated and worked on, which I am working on at the moment, we want to make sure that people on lower and middle incomes can get it because, quite frankly, at the moment the people who generally get it are very, very high income earners, and I would like to see low- and middle-income earners be able to shift their homes and schools across to solar power.

Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given the minister’s answer and the fact that the program finishes in 12 months and the rebate has been halved, doesn’t that mean that the program is in fact being phased out? Given the minister’s grandiose rhetoric about climate change, aren’t solar energy programs a small price to pay for a potentially significant contribution to clean energy?

Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They say that we have slashed the rebates. They would rather have higher rebates and fewer solar roofs. What we say is that we would rather get more solar roofs for the money. I have already extended the solar roofs program. I intend extending it again, but I want to make sure we get better value for money. I want to make sure we get more greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere for every taxpayer’s money. Senator Webber seems to think she would rather give people more money for less greenhouse gas abatement. I think if you care about climate change you will ensure that you get more greenhouse gas abatements per dollar of taxpayers’ money.