Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

which has provided a really sound policy basis for initially getting people to come into the market. I heard the comment from the opposition that they always thought that that was stupid. Well, it is interesting that they say that because when they were in government their rebate system led to a very tiny take-up of solar PV systems on people’s roofs. In fact, it was miniscule. When we came to government and introduced our policies, we saw a massive take-up. People actually engaged for the first time in a real way. In fact, so successful was our program that you could say it was overheated and overrun. It is always easy for the opposition to say that they thought it was stupid, but the reality is they did not have a better idea. If it was so stupid, why did so many ordinary Australians take it up? I will answer that rhetorical question: they took it up because it was actually a really good idea and provided some real benefits.

But we have moved on. You do not need to keep policies static, particularly in the area of renewable energy. We have moved on, we have tweaked our policy, we have improved the policy direction and made it a much more sophisticated and better policy and we have removed the means-testing mechanism and linked it to the output that is generated and a type of feed-in tariff to actually measure the rebate. We are certainly travelling in the right direction, but there is more to be done. Our work does not end there. We need to have a closer look at a national scheme for feed-in tariffs more broadly that is complementary to the sorts of national characteristics we are providing through this legislative change. We also need to look at schemes that acknowledge that solar PV is not the only method of alternative energy in Australia, particularly for those micro, home based systems. There is the potential for wind energy generation on a micro level and there is also the potential for people to use fuel cells in the not too distant future. Perhaps in a matter of just a few short years these systems will be available in Australia. There is a real opportunity for us to look at this more deeply, and I have great confidence in our policy direction. We will continue to improve, advance and change our policy direction and legislation to meet people’s requirements.

We heard from other speakers the importance of feed-in tariffs. I will not speak a lot on this but concur with them that feed-in tariffs are exceptionally important for proper pricing, particularly for greenhouse gas reduction. If we are going to give people the proper access they need then I think feed-in tariffs are the way to do it. We need to provide real incentives through that mechanism and do it on a national basis. I think we have the framework right here in front of us with this policy. With the alignment of national energy markets and the proper governance, we can do that.

Talk about national energy markets tends to glaze the eyes over a little bit for most ordinary people. I kind of agree with that. I do not know that I have talked about this at too many barbecues, though occasionally I venture into this area. But there are two particular areas where people’s eyes do not glaze over, and the first is when you start talking to them about the cost of energy. People are very conscious about cost today and cost in the future. There is a generally accepted view that energy will be much more expensive in the future, so we have to be very conscious of how we best manage the efficiency of energy markets and make sure that at the very least as a starting point our policy direction is aligned across the country and that we provide the efficient networks and the right frameworks to make the cost of energy as cheap as possible for consumers.

The other area is that of demand, which links back to what I was talking about on renewable energy. Demand in peak periods at particular times of the day or week, or for that matter during different seasons, summer and winter, varies greatly. This causes a range of either brownouts or blackouts or extra stress and extra maintenance needs on our energy providers. It is important that we look at ways of alleviating that particular demand. It can be done in a number of ways, such as educating people and providing the right incentives in different areas to make sure people consume the least possible energy and providing the right products to give people the incentive to buy the right types of products for their homes, such as energy-saving fridges and freezers, and understanding how to save energy in the home. There is an even more important way that people can save a great deal of energy and actually had a positive benefit to the market, and that is through solar photovoltaic on their roof, wind energy, whatever it might be, but whatever they can do at home at a micro level, in becoming a mini power provider themselves. It helps if people can imagine the benefits to the broader community, not just to your own home, your own pocket, but the benefits to the environment and the benefits to the energy markets themselves, if more and more people can come online by reducing the amount of energy they use and then producing energy as well. I think that is a really important way forward for us to have a future-proof energy market in this country.

In conclusion, I say that I am really pleased to see important bills such as this, important legislative change that is very much in line with the broader policy direction of the Rudd government of working through COAG, working with the states with some uniform regulatory mechanisms across the country which produce efficiency and better transparency, better governance. That all the states are working hand in hand through the COAG process with the federal government is commendable. We are prepared to have the policies in place and also to put the money on the table to ensure that ordinary consumers can be a part of our policy direction, and they could save money in the process. I commend the bill to the House.

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