Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Hypocrisy on renewable energy oozes off the seats in both sides of this parliament. I have heard a lot about a comprehensive strategy on climate change but there is not one in this parliament from this government; nor was there one when the Howard government was in power. What we actually have is a strategy to destroy solar and renewable energy. That is a more appropriate description of what has gone on in relation to renewable energy since the Rudd government was elected. The reason for that is simple and it is why hypocrisy oozes off these seats when it comes to renewable energy and solar: coal. Neither side of this parliament is prepared to do anything to get solar and renewables to a scale that could challenge coal. It is why day in, day out we see billions of dollars going to the coal industry and the large emitters. It is why we see billions going to carbon capture and storage and why we constantly see that being given priority while what we see for renewables is exactly as the previous speaker said—ad hoc, uncoordinated, not strategic and designed to destroy.

The way the government have behaved in relation to renewable energy is like a cat playing with a mouse. They let it get just a little bit of confidence and then back it to one side. It gets up and starts again and—wham—it is hit by something else. Let me give you the box and dice on what has happened here. First of all, the Photovoltaic Rebate Program was so successful that the minister said it was too successful—so in this country we can be too successful at reducing emissions from coal fired power by getting photovoltaic renewable energy into the market. We were too successful, so Minister Garrett introduced a means test to try to slow things down. But the community were not to be slowed down, because the community, unlike the government and the coalition, actually want to move to renewables and away from coal. When the means test failed to slow things down, overnight and without consultation the minister ended the rebate. Hundreds, probably thousands, of people across the country were left in a position where they had filled out the forms, rung up, expressed interest and planned on getting a system before 30 June but then found that, no, the program was gone.

Then we had the Renewable Energy Target discussed—it still has not been introduced into the Senate, I might say. Here, the responsibility for the complete mess with renewable energy lies with both the government and the coalition, because the legislation for the Renewable Energy Target would have been passed—had the government got around to introducing it into the Senate—except that the government decided to protect the old sectors, the big emitters, by exempting those polluters from the Renewable Energy Target but saying that the exemption would apply only if the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was passed. And the coalition was not prepared to pass the Renewable Energy Target legislation without the exemption for the big emitters. So who was being given security here? The big emitters. Who has been hung out to dry? The renewable energy industry.

Right on the back of that complete failure we now have an end to the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program and with it the demise of Bushlight. In Indigenous communities in particular this has been an extremely successful program. Not only has it been successful in terms of the quality of life in those Indigenous communities; it has been extremely successful in building capacity for Australia to sell its expertise and intellectual property in remote power generation, in particular in the Pacific.