Page 1246 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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It is interesting to read the words of Keith De Lacy, a former Queensland state government treasurer and current Queensland President of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Writing in the Australian in June 2016, in an article entitled “Solar and wind power simply don’t work”, he said:
The Germans are ruing the day they decided to save the world by converting to solar and wind. Germany has spent $US100 billion on solar technology and it represents less than one per cent of their electricity supply.
Energy policy has been a disaster. Subsidies are colossal. The energy market is now chaotic. Industry is decamping to other jurisdictions and more than a million homes have had their power cut off.
It is reported electricity prices in Germany, Spain and the UK increased by 78 per cent, 101 per cent and 133 per cent between 2005 and 2014 as they forced additional renewable capacity into their electricity markets.
This comes from a former Queensland state Labor treasurer—a state that would reasonably be expected to support at least solar power.
At paragraph 3(a) of her motion Ms Orr calls on the government to investigate opportunities to expand the current small-scale virtual power plant trial into a larger scale project. If the trials are successful, we can expect household savings of hundreds of dollars, say the researchers. That sounds promising, but surely a trial should at least be completed and evaluated before calling on the government to spend even more money on larger projects? That has all the hallmarks of the approach a Greens minister might take. What Ms Orr appears to be suggesting here is: “Hey, let’s not wait to see if this trial works; let’s just go and do it and hang the expense.”
The Canberra Liberals have agreed to the 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2020 target on a number of occasions. We do so again today. You know what else we recommit to? We also recommit to holding the government to account in making sure that reliability and affordability are key factors in moving forward with our renewable energy future. A renewable energy future cannot come at any cost because it will place an unfair burden on those Canberrans who can afford it the least.
I have called on the minister—and I call on him again today—to reassure our community that the ACT government will ensure, as a matter of priority, the affordability of our transition to renewable energy. Canberra families should not be forced to meet the ACT government’s ideological ambition at any cost. Since we are in the space of reaffirming and recommitting, I remind Ms Orr that it is her party that is in government and it is her party’s job to deliver on its promise to deliver on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2020. If she feels the need to keep reminding her own colleagues of that commitment, perhaps she has doubts that it can be done.
Is that why Minister Rattenbury covers the same ground in his motion on the notice paper for tomorrow? He too goes over old ground, reiterating the ACT’s contributions to national and global efforts to address climate change. He too again refers to the 100 per cent target. He refers to the benefits of their policies for ACT residents as a
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