Address to the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society - A Tale of Shady Solar Promises

_{30 September, 2009}

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Thanks very much to Mike Diamond, Chairman of the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society, and to you and to Professor Achmed Zahedi, Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at James Cook University, to JCU Vice Chancellor Professor Sandra Harding, to Kate Jones and Mandy Johnson, who unfortunately have just had to leave, Councillor Vern Veitch from the Townsville City Council, distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Before I add my welcome to this lovely part of the world, could I just spare a thought for the people of American Samoa and Samoa and Pacific Islands generally as they face some anxious moments over the next 6 to 12 hours as a result of the earthquake and tsunami which hit American Samoa in the early hours of this morning.  We certainly hope and pray that the disaster is not as serious as the first reports have indicated.

Ladies and Gentlemen, with that can I add my welcome to Townsville and Northern Australia.  If ever there were the “right” place to hold a conference dedicated to the promotion of solar and related research and development - and the adoption of Solar Energy – then surely it must be Townsville.  Boasting some 300 days of sunshine each year, with a magnificent conference venue like this, a solar city status and a wonderful island an easy ride away – an island that’s brimming with solar energy participants - then this must be the right place for a conference.  As a passionate Northern Australian myself, and as Federal Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the North, I am particularly delighted to welcome you to the most exciting region of Australia – an area where I believe the future of our country lies in so many ways – and, certainly, solar energy is one of these.  But today I am here representing the Alternative Minister for Climate Change, the Environment and Water, the Hon Greg Hunt MP.

Greg has asked me to extend to you his apologies for his late withdrawal from this event.  On Friday he got the call asking him to attend a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet in Adelaide today to discuss amendments to the Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme.

Getting climate change legislation correct is perhaps the single most significant policy issue confronting Australia at the present time, so I hope you will forgive his late withdrawal.

I might also say this is the home town to my Parliamentary colleague, Peter Lindsay, who, if I might use the pun, is a regular ray of sunshine – and who identifies himself as the Member for Paradise.  Unfortunately Peter would be here, but he is away on a Parliamentary Delegation and sends his best wishes.

But Peter did much work to encourage and support Townsville to secure funding as one of the Federal Government’s Solar Cities.  And I will have more to say about that later.
But first I want to congratulate ANZSES and JCU for their foresight and energy in organizing the conference on such an important issue.  As a Northerner I and all of us are very very proud of James Cook University.  Its one of the few (I think its 5) universities in the tropical parts of the world – which constitutes more than a third of the globe.  And James Cook University has developed a very well earned reputation for its work in tropical sciences, tropical research and, of course, its interest in solar energy as demonstrated by its involvement in this conference today.

I was pleased to hear the Queensland Minister, Kate Jones, mention her government’s perspective on solar energy and related matters.  I have to say that it must be frustrating for the State Minister to have to sit and hope and wait for
Commonwealth money for programs like Solar Schools which has been promised for some time by the Federal Government but which I understand has been very slow in coming.

But, Ladies and Gentlemen as mentioned, Greg Hunt has asked me to deliver this speech on his behalf which he has appropriately titled A Tale of Shady Solar Promises which incorporates your theme of this conference of using solar energy to cut greenhouse emissions and deliver jobs for Australia.

Greg recalls, earlier this year, asking questions about what had happened to that program on Solar Schools (which I mentioned previously) – and Kate would have been very interested in.

The promised solar panels, regrettably are still a mirage.  There were similar problems in the roll-out of a program for water tanks – not only for schools, but also for surf clubs and homes. 

And right up until a $42 billion of what we a call a “cash splash” was announced by our Treasurer earlier this year; there had been no sign of the pink batts for renters program promised earlier.  That program did come in with the $42 billion spending this year - but six months later, that program has now been scrapped by the Federal Government and $620 million was diverted to help pay for a whopping blow-out in an education program which was dedicated to promoting the personality of the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.  A huge blow out in that and, regrettably, the pink batts for renters program has been slashed to provide money for that schools program.

So first of all I don’t want to dwell just on those failings.

I know that many of the delegates here are particularly interested in what politicians in Canberra are going to do to help recover some of the lost confidence in the solar and renewable energy sectors.

I know that many of the delegates here, particularly those from industry, have been some very tough times recently.

But first of all, the good news!
The Renewable Energy Target Legislation has finally been passed by the Australian Federal Parliament.

Greg Hunt tells me that many of you in the industry were extremely disappointed that it took so long for the Government to bring forward its promised Renewable Energy Target (RET) Legislation this year.  After all, you might recall, it was an explicit promise made by the Labor Party in 2007.  And here we all were in Canberra, ready to support this legislation, but there was no sign of the RET bills until just a little while ago.

I want to pay tribute to Greg Hunt – and to another Queensland colleague, Ian Macfarlane, who worked like Trojans to untangle and improve the RET bills and to get them through Parliament.

It was, we believe, an act of political bastardry for the Government to link the RET with the ETS.  It was political gamesmanship at a new low.  But it didn’t work I’m pleased to say.  And in the end, the Government conceded that it was trying to use the RET as a political football and it eventually agreed to our demands that it be divided from the ETS Legislation.

Happily now, Australia’s solar sector now has the support of a 20% renewable energy target to help them grow and develop in Australia – and that has to be good news for all renewable energies – but particularly for solar.

Townsville as leading ray on sunshine
One of the great innovations in helping to develop solar energy has been the Solar Cities Program.

It was a program initiated and rolled out by our Government several years ago.  And I am glad to see that it is one of the few programs which the new Government hasn’t shut down.

Solar Cities, as most of you will know, sees the Government working with the private sector on smart, new energy-efficient technologies.

Here in Townsville, or more particularly, Magnetic Island, we are seeing the installation of some 2500 smart meters, the provision of some 1700 household energy audits and some 500 solar photovoltaic systems on home roofs.  I know all about this – because one of my staff is an enthusiastic participant and was with some of you on the Island yesterday – Annie keeps me updated on everything that is happening with the .Magnetic Island Solar Cities program from a personal point of view.

I understand that many of you did go to Magnetic Island yesterday and had a very busy afternoon looking at the Solar Cities program on the Island.  As you know it’s a pilot program and shows the ways of developing solar energy in partnership with the community.

With the Island showing some 6% decrease in energy use on the Island since the start of the program less than 2 years ago – against a benchmark of 3% increase in use of conventional power elsewhere, the Townsville/Magnetic Island Solar Cities program is going well and the team organizing it (from Ergon and others) is certainly to be congratulated.  Their passion and commitment was very well demonstrated to those of you who undertook that tour to Magnetic Island yesterday.

Tens of thousands of old light bulbs have been replaced with energy efficient ones.  That Program is all part of a plan that is designed to help our communities save energy, to save money and reduce carbon emissions.

The lessons learnt from Townsville will be shared with those in other solar cities, including Alice Springs, Perth, Adelaide, Coburg, Blacktown and Central Victoria.

As the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia it seems to me that renewable energy, and solar in particular, has considerable potential in meeting part of the energy needs of rural, remote and isolated communities across the north of Australia. 

In Cloncurry, out to the west of here, a solar-thermal power production project is underway.

I understand Ergon is working with communities in the tip of Cape York and in the Torres Strait Islands and in the coal mining communities of Central Queensland, wishing to roll out similar pilot programs to the Solar Cities Magnetic Island project – and in all cases involving the local communities in those particular programs. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Solar Cities is certainly a good news story for the solar industry in Australia.  It’s such a pity that good news stories are becoming harder and harder to find.

How the Government has turned on the solar sector
If you cast your minds back, for those of you who were in Australia, you probably thought in 2007 that all your Christmases had come at once – you had a stack of promises that sounded too good to be true and, it turned out, they were too good to be true. 

What we have seen since November 2007 is:
• $42million stripped from the remote solar program.
• The introduction of the means test on the $8,000 solar panel rebate
• The premature (and without-warning) guillotining of the same solar panel rebate
• The axing of the solar rebate for remote areas
• Failures in the rollout of the Solar Schools program
• Delays and game-playing with the introduction of the renewable energy target legislation

Remote Solar program cut – in the name of fighting inflation
Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret to dwell on these and will try not to, but
one of the first acts of the new Government was to strip $42million from the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program.

That was another program of the previous Government.  It helped to cover up to half the cost of solar units in outback Australia so that people wouldn’t have to use dirty diesel generators.  This was a vital program, particularly for pastoralists and indigenous communities.  Unfortunately the Government slashed it by $42 million in its first budget.

Solar Homes Means Test
The Coalition Government that provided an incentive for mums and dads to go solar with an $8,000 home-owners’ rebate.

But again in its first Budget, the current Government slapped a means test on it.

Any family with a combined income over $100,000 – or just $50,000 per parent – was prevented from getting that rebate.  The impact was to cut demand from many of the traditional purchasers of solar energy.  Environmentally-conscious, aspirational families on modest incomes were now missing out.  These were the people who had put the $8,000 rebate to good use by installing a larger solar unit to fulfil the needs of a family home.

But after the means test was introduced, we saw a distortion in the market.  A switch to the small, one-kilowatt units.  For the same $8,000 rebate, we saw a dramatic shrinking in the average size of the solar units being ordered. 

Solar Homes Axed
June 9, 2009 was a day that many of you in industry will never forget.  It was the day when you woke up to discover that the Solar Homes and Communities Plan would end.  Not on 30 June as we had been told and promised and led to believe.

Tucked away in a joint media release about the release of RET legislation, the Climate Change and Environment Ministers happened to mention that, by the way, the Solar Homes rebate was being axed that day.  It sent the solar industry into chaos.

Those of you in retailing had been busily but steadily processing applications for the solar rebate ahead of the 30 June deadline.  We knew that was the planned date because that’s what the Minister and his Budget Papers had said.

I know that many of you had a hell of day that day as you frantically tried to complete thousands of lengthy and detailed applications on the last day.

Remote Solar Becomes a Distant Reality
Then on June 22, the Environment Minister did it again.  This time, out of the blue, the Minister simply took the axe to the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program.

But this time, there was no announcement from the Minister.  He was at that time on his way to a whaling conference on the other side of the world.

No, instead an email was sent out from his department at 8.33am, advising that the program had ended – three minutes earlier – at 8.30am.

This time, no one was given a chance to get their applications in.  And again, the consequences for many of your businesses, was extremely damaging.

There was a 7.30 Report on the consequences of the scrapping of this program out in middle Australia and many of you would have been interested in that.  But I can tell you that here in Queensland more and more outback farmers and communities would like the option of installing solar energy systems and its just a pity that the promises of 2007 have become a fading memory.

Solar schools get a caning
The Solar Schools Program I’ve mentioned.  At Estimates we ascertained that there are nearly 10,000 schools in Australia.  The Climate Change Minister was only able to identify 20 of those 10,000 schools that had received the panels.  I can understand why the solar industry feels so frustrated.

At least the RET Legislation has made it over the line
Mind you, the delays in Solar Schools were indicative of the delays in the legislation for the promised 20% renewable energy target.

There was no sign of the legislation throughout 2008, despite climate change being dubbed by Mr Rudd as “the great moral challenge of our generation,” it took a long time to get that legislation through.

Some of you would likely remain scarred by the baffling and disappointing delay in the legislation being brought on and then, as I mentioned earlier, being used as a political football.

Although the Government accepted most of our amendments for the RET legislation there was one important measure which the Government refused to support us on - and that was the quarantining of a slice of the RET for emerging technologies such as solar thermal.

The Coalition will bring forward a private member’s bill and urge the Government to reconsider their position on this aspect of the RET legislation.

We do hope that the Government listens to the warnings and arguments set down by the solar industry on the RET and does support that private members legislation to “band up” to one quarter of the renewable energy targets for these emerging technologies.

Emissions Trading Scheme
Ladies and gentlemen, I can’t finish without saying a few words about the next big piece of legislative reform that will impact upon the solar industry.

The Coalition has said that we are very happy to work with the Government to improve their proposed ETS legislation.

But surely it makes sense to wait a month to see how an Australian ETS would fit into a global system?

As you know, debate on the government’s ETS is likely to be brought on into the Senate in mid-November.  But the UN Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen will start only a few weeks later in mid December.  For an Australian ETS to work efficiently in a global environment, we need to know what the rest of the world has planned.

If you’re going to have an effective emissions trading scheme that actually helps to bring down global emissions without destroying domestic jobs, you need to work with the global community, not race them for some kind of boasting exercise.

And I might add – and these are my own thoughts – not necessarily Greg Hunt’s – some of the outlandish claims of benefits of Mr Rudd’s CPRS are just too incredible to possibly be believed.

As a person who has spent all of my life alongside our wonderful Great Barrier Reef – and who understands implicitly just how important the Reef is to our eco systems, our economy and jobs, I perhaps more than most, want to do the right thing by our Reef.  But to suggest that by reducing Australia’s emissions from 1.3% of world greenhouse gas emissions to 1.23% of emissions will somehow save the Great Barrier Reef – that is simply an insult to anyone’s intelligence – and I regret to say that it is the argument that our Minister for Climate Change is running round Australia promoting.

But, Ladies and Gentlemen, back to your theme.

Solar Energy does have a significant role to play in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and with careful and serious legislative processes can deliver real jobs for Australia – particularly to regional parts of our great country that I’m so passionate about.

The Coalition has in the past introduced many initiatives to support the solar energy industry – we remain committed to work with the Government, with industry, with researchers, with Universities and with the community to ensure Australia’s “place in the sun” as a world leader in the adoption of and improvement on Solar Energy.

I wish you all the very best for your deliberations.  I know that they will be very productive and I hope that your stay in Townsville will be pleasant, fruitful and of real benefit to Australia and indeed, to all parts of the world from whence you came.
Good luck to you all.

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