“We made a mistake on solar.” Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland concedes the Barnett government was wrong to cut the solar feed-in rebate from 40c to 20c per unit.
The move had been expected to save $50 million over four years.
Earlier this week, Colin Barnett announced he was scrapping the cut, following a public outcry.
“In my five years as an MP I’ve never received so many emails and correspondence over a single issue,” Mr Sutherland says.
“The feeling was that people had a binding contract which should be honoured.
“The fact that the scheme is a drain on the public purse does not come into the argument.
“Western Power can generate a kilowatt of electricity for about 5c and the government is buying solar electricity back at 40c per kilowatt.
“From what I remember the same type of thing was sending NSW broke.”
In 2010, then NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally slashed the feed-in-tariff for new entrants from 60c to 20c to curb cost blowouts on its solar bonus scheme.
In 2011 NSW Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat said the scheme would have blown out to almost $4 billion from an initial $362 million if efforts hadn’t been made to rein it in.
The scheme, introduced by the former NSW Labor government, is estimated to have cost state coffers more than $1 billion.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK
Perth Voice Interactive 
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