Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The supplementary question is based on a false premise. The then Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, the member for Wentworth, announced in 2007 that this scheme would close in 2012. As the relevant minister at the time, the member for Wentworth indicated that the scheme would close in 2012. Further, he is on the public record as saying that once you have a carbon price you do not need specific policies to support solar hot water. So we have support from the member for Wentworth both in terms of the fact that it was well known that this was not designed to be an ongoing program and in terms of the fact that the introduction of the carbon price would require a recalibration of policies supporting some of these solar related schemes. It is also true that we still provide ongoing incentives for installing solar hot water systems. We believe demand will continue among the Australian public for these systems.