Federal Libs feared being burnt by solar heat
The Barnett Government's solar Budget shock reverberated around the highest levels of the Federal Liberal Party at the weekend, with national director Brian Loughnane personally told of the damage it was doing.
Federal WA Liberal Don Randall said yesterday he told Colin Barnett of his "displeasure" on Friday and sent the Premier some of the "vicious" emails his office was receiving. He also contacted Mr Loughnane.
Mr Barnett insisted he wasn't "prevailed upon" to reverse the decision, but admitted "it's never a good thing to have controversy during an election campaign".
Mr Randall launched a scathing assessment of the State Government's post-election reversals on the solar feed-in tariff, local government amalgamations and promised welfare assistance for grandparents.
The Federal member for Canning, renowned as a tireless doorknocker, said governments on occasion were entitled to "reverse" election promises but needed to explain why, not simply "arrogantly announce things".
Mr Randall said the post- election decisions to merge councils, halve the solar feed-in tariff and cut the grand-carers' support scheme from the promised $5.3 million over four years to $1.5 million were "breaches of faith".
"If there hasn't been a decent explanation as to why, I think the Government quite rightly deserves the hiding that they're getting," he said. "There's something wrong with the Government media office.
"If these highly paid people are allowing reversals in policy and programs to be just announced without any justification, then someone's not earning their money."
Another senior WA Liberal source said the backlash was largely from "our" people: "Older, 50-plus people trying to get their financial affairs in order who have been whacked by this."
Hasluck Liberal Ken Wyatt tweeted that he was pleased with Cabinet's U-turn, saying "families don't need any more cost of living pressure".
A breakdown on Friday of WA marginal electorates with solar panel-equipped homes by national lobby group Solar Citizens found there were 13,000 in Canning and 9700 in Hasluck.
