House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-06 Daily Xml

Contents

SOLAR FEED-IN TARIFF REVIEW

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (17:08): My question is to the Minister for Energy. What is the status of the solar feed-in tariff review and when will the report of the review be released? In May 2009 the feed-in scheme reached a 10 megawatt capacity, which triggered the statutory review. The member for Light told the house in June 2009 that the government would respond to that review in September, but at the end of October 2009 the minister announced that the review was about to begin and would be finalised by the end of December 2009. We are still awaiting any information.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (17:09): There was the small matter of an election recently, which has made it a little difficult. In fact, my understanding is that the Sustainability and Climate Change Office is actually answerable to the Premier and not to me. It is very near to completion, and I expect that cabinet will see something from it very soon. Naturally, cabinet did not deal with these things during the caretaker period, but my understanding is that we will see something soon.

It is absolutely true that there is now a great deal of activity in this area around Australia, and this has had to inform the review. A great number of changes took place during the course of the review, and members would understand that the commonwealth itself changed its MRET scheme to, if you like, a small scheme and a scheme for large-scale installations. All those things had to be, and will be, taken into account, and I am sure something will be with cabinet soon. I note that I am sure this is a matter of burning concern to that greenie from Millicent.