Switch for Solar

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:26): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. I refer to the Switch for Solar scheme and ask: how was the choice of participating north-eastern suburbs determined for access to the Switch for Solar scheme? With your leave, and that of the house, sir, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms BEDFORD: I am just wondering how St Agnes missed out.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:26): Thank you to the member for Florey. This question is extremely similar to the one that the member for Frome asked yesterday, so the answer will be very similar. It would have been terrific to have this scheme apply to every household that qualified in Adelaide and every household that qualified in regional South Australia as well.

Given that it is a one-year, 1,000 home voluntary opt-in pilot scheme, it wasn't possible or practical or cost-effective to do that and make it available for absolutely everyone everywhere, so we chose a chunk of suburban Adelaide and we chose a chunk of regional South Australia. The suburban Adelaide section is essentially the north-eastern suburbs, but of course it's not possible to have—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Reynell!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —every single MP's electorate included. As I said yesterday to the member for Frome, I would have loved to have constituents in my area included, just like I am sure everybody else here would. For the member for Florey, we are very optimistic that this trial, this pilot, will prove up what we expect to be terrific benefits for people in South Australia.

For those who receive concessions—Cost of Living Concession and energy concession—who choose voluntarily to surrender those concessions in return for having a 4.4 kilowatt solar system put on their house for free, the modelling shows us that the savings on the annual electricity bills for those households will be well in excess of the concessions that the households have forgone. It is in the order of $220 per year through to $465 per year per household savings on the electricity bill over and above the concessions that are forgone.

Of course, this will be a matter for the Treasurer and for cabinet to agree to, but I will certainly be very hopeful that, once this program has been proven up and the benefits to these households are known in even greater detail, we will then be able to offer it to all concession holders throughout the state. That is very clearly my intention—all concession holders throughout the metropolitan area and all concession holders throughout the regional areas as well.

My apologies to any member who, just like me, would like his or her own electorate and his or her own constituents to have been included in the trial, but that was just not possible or practical. We had to choose a section of the city and a section of the country. We did that understanding that every other section also would like to have been included in this absolutely outstanding program.

Let me finish by saying how disappointed I was to hear the shadow minister for energy call this a 'cruel and unfair program', I think were the words used, to give concession holders the choice to voluntarily surrender their concessions in return for a free solar system and thereby save money. I think that everyone who chooses to participate will be very satisfied with the outcome.

Ms BEDFORD: Supplementary, Mr Speaker: he hasn't answered my question. You haven't answered how the trial participants were chosen.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Florey will resume her seat.