Barnett buckles under solar heat
The Barnett Government has reversed its decision to slash the rooftop solar panel subsidy scheme, buckling to a furious public backlash, a backbench revolt and Liberal Party ructions that the Federal election campaign was being undermined.
Colin Barnett emerged from Cabinet yesterday to apologise to the public and declare the Government would immediately reverse its decision to slash the payment rate from 40 cent to 20 cent.
The extraordinary backflip came less than an hour after Treasurer Troy Buswell told reporters the decision would not be reversed. Mr Buswell denied he felt undermined by the about-face.
"I apologise, I'm sorry this happened," Mr Barnett said yesterday. "It was a mistake, we accept that, we reverse the decision and I guess we move on from there.
"Yeah, we've got a bit of egg on our face. We're sorry, we'll cop it, we'll pay for it."
Explaining the reversal, Mr Barnett said the scheme - which was introduced and overseen by former energy minister Peter Collier - was "overly generous" and "unfair to other electricity consumers".
But he insisted the contract between Synergy and customers provided for the Government to slash the rate if it chose, commentary echoed yesterday by Mr Buswell, who said: "There is no way we would have acted in this way if it wasn't permissible under the contracts."
The West Australian believes the legal advice, from the State Solicitor's Office, was based on clauses in the subsidy contracts.
But it did not take into consideration a letter sent in May 2011 by Synergy chief operation officer Greg Roberts to customers entitled to the 40 cent payment that they would receive it "for the full term of your 10-year contract".
Energy Minister Mike Nahan's office was not aware of the existence of the letter until it surfaced in media reports on Friday.
It is understood the ground began to be laid for the backflip within hours of Mr Buswell handing down the Budget on Thursday afternoon.
Government backbenchers said they had been inundated with angry correspondence - much of it from Liberal voters - who felt betrayed by a decision to axe the scheme.
The decision had also reverberated to the Federal election campaign, with Canning MHR Don Randall and Pearce candidate Christian Porter lobbying for the decision to be reversed amid concerns it would damage their chances of defeating Kevin Rudd.
The West Australian yesterday obtained a briefing note from the Public Utilities Office to Dr Nahan last month that warned of the likelihood of a public backlash, noting that the NSW O'Farrell Liberal Government had been forced to reverse a similar decision because of the outcry.
The briefing note was signed on July 19 and discusses the implications for Dr Nahan to implement the Government's decision to cut the solar feed in tariff rate from 40c to 20c for existing customers.
The briefing note says there were "legal risks" with the Government's decision.
But the office of Dr Nahan told The West Australian last night the legal advice cited was not prepared for this policy decision, but an earlier decision, taken in mid-2011, to cut the rate from 40c to 20c for new applications.
The Government claims it rejected the ministerial briefing note and subsequently sought fresh legal advice from the State Solicitor's Office that found no major legal risks with its Budget decision to cut the rate.
"The briefing note provided by the Public Utilities Office (PUO) was flawed, outdated and contained a number of factual errors," Dr Nahan said last night in a statement.
"The analysis in the briefing note did not relate to the decision that the Government made in the Budget and therefore not relevant.
"Following receipt of the Ministerial Briefing Note from the PUO, the ministerial office requested further legal advice from State Solicitor’s Office that confirmed the contents of the briefing note were incorrect."
The West Australian has asked the Government to release that new advice, but is yet to receive a response.
Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said: "This is a Government in chaos, disarray and turmoil."
