Page 1128 - Week 03 - Thursday, 26 February 2009
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and on consideration we decided that because this is such a complex issue we would rather send the message to the minister that we are watching this, we want to see progress and we want to be involved in the discussions. We do not want it to be presented to us as a fait accompli. We want to have the capacity to interrogate and look critically at the modelling that must be done. I suppose what we are saying is that we want this system to work because there is no-one more committed to introducing large-scale solar industries in the ACT than the Canberra Liberals; it was a centrepiece of our election policies.
We want to see that happen, and we believe that the feed-in tariff is part of the answer. But in all the discussions I have had with large-scale solar producers who would potentially come to town there are a lot of questions that still need to be factored in. I will just list some of them. If renewable energy is produced in the ACT and sold over the border, what happens to the feed-in tariff? What is the interplay between the feed-in tariff and green power schemes? Should there be a different premium rate for different sorts of renewable energies, which Mr Rattenbury has addressed? They are just three quite complex questions that need to be addressed before we can go down this path. Then: what is the best way of providing a feed-in tariff or in some way providing some encouragement for the establishment of renewable energy, particularly solar industries, in the ACT?
That is what this conversation is about. That is what the work on part B is all about, and in the spirit of the high level of cooperation and the high level of commitment to introducing this, we want to see the government come up with something that we can all agree on, and that means it has to be done in an open and iterative way. You cannot have the Simon Corbell who says, “What I have written I have written—take it or leave it,” which is his usual form. This is the new regime, this is the new norm, and he will need to talk to all the groupings in the Assembly so that we can together come up with the appropriate solution.
The other point that needs to be made—and I have resisted saying this for some time—is that the government has fallen to the position of saying, “The feed-in tariff was not due to start until 1 July this year.” That is rubbish. The feed-in tariff could have commenced at any time after it was passed in the Legislative Assembly. I went to meeting after meeting. I went to a meeting about solar issues about two days after the bill was passed and I met a large number of people who were appalled that they would have to wait for another year, at that stage, for the introduction of the feed-in tariff.
The government could have introduced the feed-in tariff before the last election. They have been brought kicking and screaming to this place today because of the Greens-Labor alliance document, whatever it is called. I know that if I get the name wrong Mr Rattenbury will chip me for it, so I apologise in anticipation so that he might not chip me for it. Whatever the document is called, we are here today because of that. But the government could have done it before the last election if they were really committed to the feed-in tariff, and that needs to be put on the record. At the time, the people in the ACT community who were committed to the introduction of solar were appalled at how long they would have to wait.
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