Page 5684 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 6 December 2011
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opportunity that this legislation presents today. The bill being debated today builds on the experience of numerous renewable energy support schemes undertaken in both Australia and abroad, including the expressions of interest process the government conducted in 2009 for the development of a 30-megawatt solar power facility. Through that process, the industry advised the territory that lower prices could be obtained by providing a fixed term feed-in tariff that provided revenue certainty for the generator, thereby reducing financial risks and lowering their costs of capital. Through that process we also confirmed that offering a firm and transparent support scheme would provide proponents with the confidence to invest in the development of quality and less conditional solar power proposals with firmer pricing, lower risk premiums and reduced implementation risks.
As a result the ACT Labor government committed to bring forward a large-scale feed-in tariff scheme to support up to 210 megawatts of renewable energy capacity with an initial release of up to 40 megawatts of solar energy to be awarded through a competitive auction process. Today the Labor government is delivering on its policy commitment.
The legislation builds on extensive consultation with industry and market regulators and on specialist technical advice. It represents a significant innovation in the way in which we can provide targeted assistance to renewable energy generators in a way that is efficient and effectively manages commercial and implementation risks for communities.
I want to address some of the criticisms of this scheme that we have heard from those opposite. In particular I want to draw to members’ attention the absolute policy bankruptcy of the Liberal Party on this issue. We hear the Liberal Party assert that pursuing large-scale solar is an inefficient and costly scheme that cannot be justified. They go on to assert that this legislation means that large-scale solar may be built outside the territory and they go on to say that they do not support the development of large-scale solar here in the ACT.
The hypocrisy of the Liberal Party on this matter is absolutely astounding. I would draw to members’ attention the policy released by Mr Seselja’s Liberals on 10 October 2008. It is called “Cleaning up our ACT: Leadership on Climate Change”. What is the cornerstone of the Liberal Party’s policy on this issue? I will quote from the policy, because it speaks for itself:
The cornerstone of the policy will include the immediate commencement of a project to develop of Solar Power Plant at the heart of a Renewable Energy Park. A Canberra Liberal Government will go out to the market for expressions of interest in developing a solar power station. We will commit $13.4 million to establish the roadworks and the utility connections to the power grid, to make a centre viable for investors.
Contrast that with what Mr Seselja has been saying for the last four years—that large-scale solar is inefficient, that it is too costly, that it imposes pain on Canberra households, that the Canberra Liberals will not support it and they will not support this bill today. Their hypocrisy is clear on this issue. At the last election they went to
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