Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, the responsibility for matters such as workplace health and electrical safety standards generally and in relation to solar PV systems is the respon­sibility of state and territory governments. We as a government recognise this respon­sibility and safety matters are reported to the relevant state and territory agencies for appropriate action. To be eligible to receive support under the RET all systems must comply with relevant Australian standards and all relevant Commonwealth, state, territory and local government laws and regulations.

As I was saying, there have been a range of measures introduced over the last 12 months to strengthen compliance regimes. The number of audits which a state should conduct is obviously a matter that should best be determined by the relevant state body. However, the federal government has moved to implement an additional inspection regime for solar panels installed under the renewable energy target and the regulator is now required to inspect a statistically significant number of installations each year and can also conduct targeted inspections of persons of interest. (Time expired)