Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition Spokesperson for Renewables and Energy Joshua Burgoyne says Territorians have been lied to - with the feed-in tarriff for solar energy set to drastically lower the rebate for thousands

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Opposition Spokesperson for Renewables and Energy Joshua Burgoyne says Territorians have been lied to - with the feed-in tarriff for solar energy set to drastically lower the rebate for thousands · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that on Friday, well, some of you may
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: have missed that news that over thirteen thousand households in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory have had their solar feed in tariff
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: slashed so across the board, it's going to add a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: total of twelve million dollars. Essentially. Under the grandfathered feed
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: in tariffs, anyone who had installed solar panels on their
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: roofs before April twenty twenty was being paid twenty six
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: point six five cents per killer what hour they fed
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: back into the territory's power greed. Homeowners who installed the
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  Speaker 1: solar after April twenty twenty, though, were only being paid
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  Speaker 1: nine point one to three cents a killer what hour.
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  Speaker 1: Now the Renewables and Energy Minister Eva Lawla announced this
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  Speaker 1: on Friday that Jacana Energy is set to gradually transition
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  Speaker 1: customers off the premium feed in tariff once they've been
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: on the system for four years. So these changes come
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  Speaker 1: ahead of this week's budget and like I said, it
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  Speaker 1: is going to impact roughly thirteen thousand homes. Now joining
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  Speaker 1: me on the line to talk more about this and
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  Speaker 1: the concerns which have been raised about the changes is
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  Speaker 1: the opposition spokesperson for Renewables and Energy, Joshua Burgoin, Good
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  Speaker 1: morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, Good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Josh What are people saying to you about these changes?
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  Speaker 2: I think your texted just from before Katie really sums
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  Speaker 2: this up. People feel like they've been led to. The
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  Speaker 2: Labor government went ahead, they promised people when they came
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  Speaker 2: out and said that they were going to grandfather all
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  Speaker 2: the old freed in tariff rates prior to their last announcement,
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  Speaker 2: and now they come out a few months later, after
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  Speaker 2: all this mismanagement with the budget, they're trying to save
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  Speaker 2: a few cents and the people that they're hurting the
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  Speaker 2: most are the hard work Territorians that have invested their
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  Speaker 2: own hard earned money to ensure that not only you know,
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  Speaker 2: they're doing their bit for climate change and they're putting
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  Speaker 2: solo on their house, but they're also trying to keep
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  Speaker 2: their own power bills down. And this effects a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people, a lot of senior people, retirees who might
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  Speaker 2: have invested this money back when they had an income
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  Speaker 2: coming in. Now they don't. That's what I'm hearing from
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people. You know, they're worried about how
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  Speaker 2: high their power bill is going to go up now
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  Speaker 2: that their feed in tariff ray is going to be slashed.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to tell you. On Friday, obviously the
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  Speaker 1: announcement came out about the batteries, and then we sort
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  Speaker 1: of weren't aware that this was part of the announcement.
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  Speaker 1: I read it in the paper on Saturday, but prior
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  Speaker 1: to that, I'd already had friends messaging me saying, you know,
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  Speaker 1: this is going to have a big impact on me.
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  Speaker 1: I forked out the cash to get the solar panels,
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  Speaker 1: and we thought that we were going to you know,
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  Speaker 1: going to be getting this amount back, and now that's
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  Speaker 1: going to change. What do you think that it is
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  Speaker 1: going to mean for homeowners who've got solar?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I got my power bill just the other day, Kadie,
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  Speaker 2: and straight away I went away trying to work out
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  Speaker 2: exactly what it would mean for myself. You know, I'm
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  Speaker 2: an average territory and my wife and I am a
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  Speaker 2: young kid at home. You know, I looked at the
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  Speaker 2: average usage from most homers and it's going to meet
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  Speaker 2: in some cases that people's power bills will double. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: they were getting a really good incentive previously now they
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  Speaker 2: won't be and I think that's where they're going to
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  Speaker 2: hit the hip pocket of a lot of people. And
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  Speaker 2: it could not have come at a worse time, Katio. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you look at everything that's happening in the world at
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  Speaker 2: the moment of the fuel prices going up, they've got
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  Speaker 2: interest rates going up. Why the government have picked today
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  Speaker 2: or this week, last week, of all times? I mean
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  Speaker 2: they came out previously they said that anyone on that
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  Speaker 2: old tariff wereight was not going to be effected. They've
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  Speaker 2: breaken that promise and it could not have happened at
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  Speaker 2: a worse time to territory.
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  Speaker 1: Are we in a situation here, though, Josh, where the
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  Speaker 1: system can't handle it? You know, do they need to
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  Speaker 1: actually be having a closer look at this because potentially
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  Speaker 1: the system can't handle it and they're trying to drive
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  Speaker 1: people towards those batteries instead.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is exactly why the CLP came out before
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  Speaker 2: the last election and we said we would have doubled
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  Speaker 2: that battery incentive from six thousand to twelve thousand. But
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  Speaker 2: when we talk about trying to stabilize the system, they've
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  Speaker 2: already done that by obviously reducing the paraphrate to nine
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  Speaker 2: cents for new people. So they're trying to stop people
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  Speaker 2: from just putting on solar and trying to incentivize people
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  Speaker 2: to install solar and batteries. The batteries is the key,
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  Speaker 2: and I think this is really what a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people are frustrated about. They invested a lot of money
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  Speaker 2: in that solar. Originally some people are still paying it back.
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  Speaker 2: They might have signed up to a ten year payment
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  Speaker 2: plan or eight year payment plan. Not everyone's going to
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  Speaker 2: have it paid off in four years. Now. They've been
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  Speaker 2: told no, all your financial decisions you made are wrong.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to flash the tariff right. And I think
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  Speaker 2: that's really where people are frustrated. They're really frustrated that
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  Speaker 2: they made financial decisions based on promises made by the
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  Speaker 2: Labor government and they've now gone back on that.
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  Speaker 1: Josh, how do you reckon that this is going to
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  Speaker 1: impact our target side to reach the fifty percent renewable
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  Speaker 1: energy by twenty thirty. Do you think that it's going
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  Speaker 1: to have a big impact.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's certainly not making it more incentive. There certainly
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  Speaker 2: is not that incentive like there was to install solar.
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  Speaker 2: We continue to say if they're serious. If the Labor
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  Speaker 2: government is serious about getting those targets, we need to
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  Speaker 2: make sure people are installing and batteries. Batteries are the
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  Speaker 2: key to make sure that we basically level out those
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  Speaker 2: peaks and troughs that we see. And obviously in other
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  Speaker 2: springs we saw a huge impact in up our system
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  Speaker 2: when basically the whole town we had a code black
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  Speaker 2: for twelve hours due to some clouds coming over and
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  Speaker 2: a whole heap of issues occurring. We need to ensure
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  Speaker 2: that the future technology, the batteries and some of these
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  Speaker 2: microsystems that we talk about are invested in. The government
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  Speaker 2: have come out and said, oh yeah, we'll further our
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  Speaker 2: old scheme for a little bit longer. That's great, but
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  Speaker 2: again we really want to see some investment in this area.
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  Speaker 2: We want to make sure that it actually incentivizes people
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  Speaker 2: to go after and get these batteries. What Labor have
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  Speaker 2: done is they've promised one thing and delivered another. I
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  Speaker 2: think a lot of territories are feeling pretty upset waking
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  Speaker 2: up finding out this year.
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  Speaker 1: So Josh, you reckon that. The answer here is, you
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  Speaker 1: know that essentially they need to be more so incentivizing
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  Speaker 1: to go out and get the batteries as well. That
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  Speaker 1: then if you have got the solar, you're then able
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  Speaker 1: to go about it that way. I guess the difficulty
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  Speaker 1: is that it is forking out more money right from
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  Speaker 1: the get go.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, But for someone like myself who's got solar already,
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  Speaker 2: I don't have batteries. If there was, if you're going
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  Speaker 2: to double the battery incentive, someone like myself might go. See,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the future, I'm going to have an electric car.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to my tower. Usage is going to go up,
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  Speaker 2: so I need that battery to be storing power during
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  Speaker 2: the day so when I get home, I can then
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  Speaker 2: utilize that. And I think that's really what we have
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  Speaker 2: to do. We really have to incentivize people to make
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  Speaker 2: the change. Whereas currently obviously you're on that old twenty
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  Speaker 2: sixth cents or you were, there's no incentive to change over.
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  Speaker 2: And that's where now labor just come in. They said, no,
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  Speaker 2: we're scrapping the whole lot, which is just we wan't
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  Speaker 2: to incentivize people to invest in these technologies. That's why
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  Speaker 2: this thing originally came about, to incentivize people to invest
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  Speaker 2: in solar. We've now reached a point where we've got
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  Speaker 2: solar saturation in our grid, more batteries and what labor
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  Speaker 2: are doing is they're not properly investing in that technology. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: they've extended this thing, we would have gone further and
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  Speaker 2: we just can't believe that people that have paid good
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  Speaker 2: money in the past to get on to SOLA to
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  Speaker 2: do the right thing are now basically ending up worse off.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Josh. Obviously Parliament does resume in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: this week. What is going to be on the opposition's agenda.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, there's a mountain of work, Kadie that is
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  Speaker 2: in front of us. I think there's something like seven
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  Speaker 2: pieces of legislation the government have got. Obviously the Chow
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  Speaker 2: these powers for the Chief Health Officer of things that
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  Speaker 2: people have been coming up and speaking with me about.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the government needs to come clean on why
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  Speaker 2: I believe that the Chief Health Officer needs unfettered rules
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  Speaker 2: for the next two years. You know, we're coming out
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: of COVID. Obviously it's still impacting people in certain ways,
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  Speaker 2: but we believe that the show not only needs to
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  Speaker 2: be reporting on why he's making these decisions that if
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  Speaker 2: the government are really keen on this. They need to
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  Speaker 2: be able to come in front of the people gizett
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  Speaker 2: it like they always have every whatever it is three months,
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  Speaker 2: and actually come out and say, look, guys, this is
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  Speaker 2: why we need these emergency powers. They are sweeping, they
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  Speaker 2: are broad ranging. This is why we need to extend it,
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  Speaker 2: not just this set and forgetting. Oh yeah, for the
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  Speaker 2: next two years, we're going to give an unelected official
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  Speaker 2: all the powers in the world that simply doesn't pass
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  Speaker 2: the pub test. And when I go around and chat
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  Speaker 2: with people in the community, that's what they're genuinely worried about,
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  Speaker 2: as well as crime, because unfortunately this morning I've waken
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  Speaker 2: up and there's been quite a number of ram raids
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  Speaker 2: in the elector of Brakeling and in my community of
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  Speaker 2: Bella Springs. Crime is a big one.
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  Speaker 1: What happened overnight, Josh, with those ram raids.
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  Speaker 2: Overnight and our springs, there's been a vehicle that's reportedly
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  Speaker 2: been stolen. They've basically smashed into the local motorcycle story.
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  Speaker 2: Then they've gone through good measure and smashed into a
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  Speaker 2: local survey so ramming the doors and just causing thousands
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  Speaker 2: of dollars of damage. I mean This is on top
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  Speaker 2: of business that are already hurting from increased crime from
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  Speaker 2: smash windows in our community. It's simply not good enough,
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  Speaker 2: and the Gunner government continue to bury their head in
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  Speaker 2: the sand. All I ask for every time Katie I
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  Speaker 2: come on your radio, look at their own media release
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  Speaker 2: from I think it was June twenty twenty, before the
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  Speaker 2: last election. They promised that they would cut youth crime
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  Speaker 2: and actually crack down on these repeat offenders. They've never
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: implemented those things that day announced. These are things Day
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: announced the government. And I'll tell you what, it'd be
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  Speaker 2: a start, Katie to dealing with some of the issues
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  Speaker 2: that we face right across the Northern territory when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to crime.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we feel it up here in the
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  Speaker 1: top end, but I feel for the people of Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: I know that it's been an issue for such a
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  Speaker 1: long period of time, and you know, I think that
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: it's going to have to reach a point where the
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  Speaker 1: government does really need to take it seriously. I think
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  Speaker 1: there needs to be a real bipartisan approach when it
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: comes to crime, because what is happening at the moment
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  Speaker 1: is just not good enough.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not Katie, and we continue to say, you know,
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  Speaker 2: whenever the chief winess is down our of Springs is
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: our doors are always open. Seems to be walking through
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: the same doors every time he comes down there, and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: really avoiding the victims of crime, the people that he
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: needs to speak to, you know, because if you look
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: into someone's face that's worked hard to build up their
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: business and they've just had their front doors smashed in,
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what it really does make you think,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: what can I do? What can we do more to
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  Speaker 2: change these things and turn turn the situation around well.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Josh Burgoyne, the member for Braitlang and also the opposition
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: spokesperson for Renewables and Energy, we appreciate your time this morning.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for chatting with us.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Thanks for your time, Catty, thank you