BROKEN PROMISES ON SOLAR REBATE
Dr JENSEN :Remember what Labor said prior to the 2007 election:
A Rudd Labor Government will help all Australians play their part in
the fight against climate change by making it easier to take practical
action in their own homes, their schools and their local communities.
That was an ALP election commitment for 2007—the very words of the
current minister. How they have come back to haunt him! With almost
every new sunrise we are seeing another government broken promise on
solar rebates. The shadow minister has relentlessly pursued the
gaffe-prone minister on this issue, highlighting the utter
untrustworthiness of the government.
Only this week the
member for Flinders exposed yet another broken promise. This time it is
the rural and remote areas which bear the brunt of the axing of the
Renewable Remote Power Generation Program. The title of that axed
program is quite prophetic because there is not the remotest chance
that the people in remote areas will ever trust this minister or this
government again. Minister, people’s trust is not renewable and
although you are in power now it will be a generation before this
disgraceful treatment of businesses and residents will be forgotten.
The announcement of this axing was even worse than the prior axing as
it was made after the scheme had been closed. The scheme was
unilaterally ended at 8.30 am on 22 June and businesses began to
receive notices at 8.33 am. Yet again, the solar industry was thrown
into crisis. The shadow minister has said that his office has been
inundated with calls from desperate workers who will be laid off and
despairing homeowners seeing their solar hopes evaporating. One company
indicated to the shadow minister that his company alone would lose
around $1 million a month.
These actions have shown that:
(a) the government is incapable of managing the country’s finances; (b)
the government’s promises are not worth a thing; (c) the government’s
commitment to the environment is a joke; and (d) the government does
not care about people—either business people, workers or homeowners.
Where is your concern about working families, now, Prime Minister?
As for the minister, maybe he did not ‘wanna be the one’ to do this but
he has sold himself ‘one too many times’. There is ‘no-one else to
blame’, Minister, and while you have a ‘comfortable place on the couch’
the rest of the country is ‘used and abused’.