Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Western Victoria Region

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:52): (1562) My constituency question for the Minister for Energy and Resources concerns the government’s solar rooftop pyramid selling scheme. Early adopters reaped 60 cents per kilowatt hour, yet now the Essential Services Commission has slashed the flat feed-in tariff from 3.3 cents to a mere 0.04 cents per kilowatt hour. My constituent Mary writes:

I have had solar now for about 5 years … the feed in has dropped … to 0.03c … How is this happening …

I’m so confused by it all. We were encouraged to buy solar panels and received a rebate … and now we are being punished …

Households are still urged to invest, yet battery storage remains expensive, with uncertain or impossible payback times. Minister, will you guarantee that solar households will not soon pay to export their excess energy, as in New South Wales, or will this government’s sun tax, sun levy, be its 61st new tax?