Page 3096 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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government do pursue this project, in talking about the fact that it is outrageous that public servants are in this kind of accommodation, yet they are going to subject them to it for another six years. So they obviously do not care that much. There would be much quicker and better ways of actually getting them into better accommodation—much cheaper ways as well, of getting them into much better accommodation.
But they have chosen an “all or nothing” approach. They have said, “You’re going to have rubbish accommodation until we build this $430 million monolith.” (Second speaking period taken.) So there is a real contradiction there in the approach that they claim is about improving public servants’ accommodation, but not yet—not for at least six years, and of course that is if they are able to deliver it in that time.
I want to talk a little bit again about the solar feed-in tariff. We have obviously discussed it today. This is a program which really has been very poorly handled, to the extent that the Assembly has now had to clean up this mess. The minister really showed just how little he understands his own scheme, confusing things like the installed capacity with the actual output, and not understanding the way the program works when you lower the rate and when you change the rate, and what that actually means.
The minister showed in the debate today that he does not actually understand it. I received an email today from some disgruntled punters. They really were frustrated by the way this has been handled. They feel that they are some of the people who have really missed out as a result of this scheme. I will read part of the email from the individuals. There is an email to me and there is an email, which they have forwarded, to Mr Corbell. They say:
We felt like we have been treated unfairly after we have invested so many weekends researching and gaining quotes, not to mention the various companies’ time we have now wasted. We know you are a busy man, however the below three emails paint a pretty average picture of how the ACT Labor Party really treat their community, almost with contempt. We are not sure exactly what specific issue you are following up with the PV tariff matter, we just thought this may have helped.
They have attached some of their emails. Here is one to Mr Corbell:
We are emailing to state we are extremely disappointed and very much exasperated by the recent decision to stop the PV feed-in tariff so abruptly for micro-systems. On the Monday there was a warning that the micro cap might end in the papers, then according to your media release, exactly on midnight of 31 March, the cap was reached.
I think they meant 31 May. The email continues:
You wrote to my wife and I in April, espousing the benefits and importance of keeping the feed-in tariff at 45.7 cents, then just 8 weeks later the cap is reached and without any notice and the micro rebate is finished. We take back our below statements. You and your office have shown no foresight and very little leadership. If you are responsible for managing a cap, good management means you keep your eye on the ball and progressively see how it is developing so you can report back to the community where it is up to. Clearly your office dropped the ball on that one.
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