David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to associate myself with Senator Walker's remarks and thank Orygen for the great work that they do. I rise today to talk about the Solar Sharer Offer that the government has announced, and I thank Minister Bowen for his leadership on this. This is the exact direction we should be going in with renewables and the democratisation of energy in this country.

Canberrans are proud to live in a city that leads the nation on renewable energy. We were the first jurisdiction to reach 100 per cent renewable electricity, so it was unfortunate that, under the new Solar Sharer Offer which offers three hours of free electricity each day, the ACT was left out. I think this is a missed opportunity for Canberrans to cut power bills and make better use of cheap, clean solar energy in the middle of the day when we do have a glut. But because the ACT operates under a different electricity pricing framework local residents will miss out for now. I urge the federal and territory governments to work together to ensure that Canberrans can also benefit from this. Canberrans shouldn't pay more or wait longer for the same clean energy benefits being enjoyed elsewhere.

Again, I thank Minister Bowen for his leadership on this. The Solar Sharer Offer should be national in name and in practice. We now have the technology to ensure that households can generate, store and share electricity. That is the future we should be working towards. I really appreciate this new scheme from the government. I urge them to work with the ACT government and to go further to ensure that we are looking at the way we regulate electricity in the country and that households are the ones that benefit. We can cut down on transmissions by ensuring that households can generate, store, use and share electricity with their neighbours, with their suburb and with others in their city or town.