news.smh.com.au
August 31, 2010
Projects to advance solar, geothermal and bioenergy in Victoria will now have access to a $30 million grant scheme, as the Brumby government pushes its green credentials before the November election. The state government will also spend $1 million to set up a new office of solar power. "We are determined to be the solar capital of Australia", Premier John Brumby told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday. "We are a government with our eyes on the future building a solar industry".
The Australian Greens tore the seat of Melbourne from federal Labor at the national poll this month. At least three Labor inner-Melbourne seats - Melbourne. Richmond and Brunswick - could fall to the Greens at the state election on November 27. "I don't think you'd expect government to come to a halt three months out from an election", Mr Brumby said, when pressed on whether the announcement was a pitch for the Green vote. The government has appointed representatives to a medium scale solar working group to examine current investment barriers. The Electrical Trades Union donated $325,000 to the Greens to help the party win the federal seat of Melbourne. The union's Victorian secretary, Dean Mighell, has been appointed as one of the technical experts on the working group.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said he doubted whether the promised solar power projects would eventuate. "I'm not going to say we oppose them but the detail of them often seems to not materialise", he told reporters in Melbourne. "In 2002 this government promised there would be a solar plant in the Ballarat region. "They promised that before the election and it didn't happen. "In 2006 they made more promises about solar just before the election and they didn't happen". Five million dollars of the grant pool has been earmarked for projects in the Latrobe Valley.
Grant applications close on September 30.
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