Page 1785 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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meeting their obligations in relation to the scheme. Importantly, it will also be an offence for a reporting entity to provide information that is false or misleading where the entity knows or is reckless about it being false or misleading. The maximum penalty for each of these offences is 30 penalty units.
Another key amendment is that the minister will be able to require a reporting entity to undertake an audit of the information it has provided to the ACT government. This will be available in circumstances where the minister reasonably believes information provided is false, misleading or incomplete or that there is a risk the information is false, misleading or incomplete. There will also be an offence provision for the reporting entity if it should fail to undertake the requested audit. The maximum penalty for this offence is 400 penalty units.
In addition to the amendments that support data accuracy, the bill also allows Evoenergy to pass on its reasonable costs in administering the scheme. This will allow Evoenergy to dedicate resources to the scheme and is consistent with the approach taken for the ACT’s large-scale feed-in tariff scheme. These amendments require the minister to approve a reasonable amount that may be passed through to ensure that the costs are fair. This determination will be a disallowable instrument and subject to scrutiny by the Legislative Assembly. The costs will then be passed through to ACT electricity consumers by their retailer.
Administration of the large-scale feed-in tariff scheme has cost consumers no more than 30 per cent per household per year and I expect that the cost for administration of the small and medium-scale scheme will be similar to this at the most. The ACT small and medium-scale feed-in tariff scheme has helped drive the uptake of renewable electricity generation for the ACT community over the past decade, enabling more consumers to access technology that empowers them to produce their own clean electricity.
The amendments presented in the bill will ensure that this scheme continues to provide value to the ACT community in years to come, that the minister and the directorate are able to maintain a good level of scrutiny and therefore, by default, that the Assembly is also able to maintain that level of scrutiny where it seeks to do so. I commend the bill to the Assembly today.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Adjournment
Motion (by Mr Gentleman) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
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