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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-27 Daily Xml
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Switch for Solar

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (14:23): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister inform the house of the consequences of the Switch for Solar scheme on participants?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:23): The Switch for Solar program was touted by the previous Marshall government as helping low income home owners with the cost of living. Actually, as it turns out, that program had costs to the home owner that were not apparently in the announcements made by that previous government, nor did the then government reach its targets—no shock to anyone on this side of the parliament.

The Switch for Solar program was announced in February of 2020 with bold predictions of thousands of home owners who would receive what was labelled as a 'free' solar system in exchange for losing their entitlements to cost-of-living and energy concessions for 10 years—10 years. Depriving low income households of their concessions was an immoral action, and it hurt the most vulnerable. In contrast, our government, the Malinauskas government, has helped low income households by increasing the Cost of Living Concession to more than double for eligible recipients. That decision has benefited some 185,000 South Australians.

In that 2020 announcement, there was no mention that in addition to losing their concessions home owners would face significant up-front costs for their 'free' solar panels. There was some fine print that the scheme was only available in some very limited areas and that concession cardholders would have to own their home and not have a solar system. There was no mention of up-front costs in that first announcement. In fact, the assessment of the program has found that households paid up to $1,406.85 up-front to get these free solar panels, on top of losing their concessions. Talk about helping out the vulnerable! It sounded good, but on average most South Australians who were offered this did not take it up. In fact, little more than just over one in 10 accepted the offer.

I received a letter from a pensioner on the vulnerability of what pensioners are going through, and I would like to read that letter to the parliament now. Valerie is a pensioner and she went through the entire process of getting a quote for her 'free' solar panels. This is what she said to me:

Earlier this week, I got the quote and after doing the arithmetic realised that I could end up in serious debt and have to be supported by charities which I don't want to have to do…I have decided not to go ahead with it although it makes me sad as I really want to have solar panels as it is better for the environment and has to be economically viable.

From the quote I received, I found that the Liberal government had planned to take…approximately twice the cost of the original price of the panels and installation. There would also be the cost of changing the meter and switching the power off and on which I would need to be able to pay for myself, up front…there is also the question of quality of life because my reduced income would mean that I would be unable to go out and buy coffee or do anything that is fun.

So there it is: there is revealed the facade of the program designed by the Liberal Party to try to rip the most vulnerable in South Australia from their concessions. It was immoral. It was immoral and it was wrong and I'm glad we killed it.

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