Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

This was an issue within the renewable energy target—the legislation originally introduced by your government, Senator Bernardi—and a loophole which this government fixed up. Under the renewable energy target, community organisations such as football clubs are eligible to receive renewable energy certificates for the installation of solar and heat pump hot-water systems, as they were under John Howard’s renewable energy policy.

We became aware last year of the fact that some installers had been inappropriately claiming renewable energy certificates by installing multiple heat pumps, and this government moved to ensure that that problem was resolved. We moved to close the loophole and in September last year we introduced regulations to prevent the oversizing of heat pumps, which I think is what the senator is referring to. It would be useful, Senator, if perhaps rather than simply reading old articles from last week—is that how long it takes you to get something through the tactics committee?—you might want to look at the facts of the question you are asking.