Govt defends dumping solar rebate

as posted here


Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has defended his decision to pull the Government's $8,000 solar panel rebate.

The Government surprised retailers and customers yesterday by announcing the rebate would end at midnight last night, three weeks earlier than expected.

Some retailers extended their opening hours last night to allow customers time to get the necessary paperwork through.

Mr Garrett says the industry was given plenty of warning that the rebate system would end.

"The industry has known not only from the time that there would be a transition to solar credits," he said.

"But also since that period of time that the Government would want to see a transition to solar credits and that the rebate was running at levels which were very, very clearly providing a significant amount of work for the industry which it still hadn't undertaken."

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the Coalition has been supportive of moves to change the incentive scheme for renewable energy products.

But he says the surprise move to dump the solar panel rebate makes it hard to have confidence in the Government's plans.

"We are very sympathetic to the goal of a stronger renewable energy target," he said.

"We'd like to see the legislation, we want to be constructive.

"We do, of course, have concerns that Mr Garrettt, overnight, has broken the COAG announcement, broken their Budget promise and thrown the solar sector into chaos."

Greens Senator Christine Milne has criticised the Government for dumping the rebate scheme before changes to its renewable energy incentive scheme are approved.

"We certainly support a renewable energy target but we'd like to see one much higher than the Government is aiming for," she said.

"So, it's arrogant in the extreme for the Government to go ahead, change the system overnight before it has even been debated in the Senate where changes may well be made."

as posted here