THE RALLY IN TAMWORTH HAS BEEN CANCELLED because Barry O’Farrell has announced he will not pursue changes to the Solar Bonus Scheme. He had proposed to reduce retrospectively the feed-in tariff from 60c cents to 40 cents per kilowatt hour on renewable energy fed into the grid. Current legislation, passed by the Liberals and Labor in the last Government, guarantees 60 cents for seven years.
O’Farrell said he had changed his mind for two reasons: the scheme will cost $400 million less than he originally thought and he anticipated the legislation would be blocked in the Upper House by the Greens and Labor.
Special thanks are due to the thousands who protested, and especially to people like Armidale’s Geoff Bragg from the renewable energy industry who lobbied tirelessly and effectively. It is important that familes who make decisions based on government guarantees not find themselves suddenly with much larger debts than they had anticipated because new legislation changes the law.
