Late last week Liberal MP Dan Tehan broke ranks with his party in an effort to push along an end to Australia’s Renewable Energy Target stand-off.
The Member for Wannon in southwest Victoria appeared on the ABC’s 7.30 Report suggesting a resolution to the impasse that is crippling large scale renewable energy investment in Australia – a 33,000 GWh compromise.
“[My constituents] have been saying that politics is put in front of jobs and what I have been reassuring them is that, as far as I’m concerned, what I want to see is jobs put before politics,” said Mr. Tehan.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt was asked his opinion of Mr. Tehan’s comments the following day.
“We’ll approach Labor to discuss an approach between the two of us. So, I’ve invited them today and we would like the ALP to meet with us in the next ten days to discuss an outcome, but neither side of course will, of course, pre-empt their positions. Our position hasn’t changed, but we are ready and willing to talk with the ALP,” said Mr. Hunt.
“We can resolve this. The distance between the two parties isn’t far. It’s time to get a resolution.”
Currently, a ‘final offer’ of 32,000 GWh is on the table from the Abbott Government and Labor is pushing for 33,500 GWh on the recommendation of the Clean Energy Council. Even Labor’s figure is a big step down from the legislated target of 41,000 gigawatt hours.
It’s understood that a coalition of peak industry, manufacturing, and business groups including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia will publish an open letter today calling for both parties to sign off on 33,000GWh.
The current RET review has been hanging around like a bad smell for over 14 months and is the ninth inquiry or review conducted in the last three years. As a result, local investment in new large-scale renewable energy such as solar and wind farms collapsed in 2014 to levels almost 90 per cent lower than the year before according to the Clean Energy Council.
“The Clean Energy Council’s compromise proposal for large-scale renewable energy of 33,500 gigawatt-hours by 2020 will preserve a multi-billion dollar investment pipeline and create thousands of jobs,” said the CEC early last month.
” The proposal also locks in support for residential and commercial scale solar, removes the problematic two-yearly reviews of the RET and seeks to ensure ongoing support for a diversity of exciting new technologies into the future.”
