Jobs outcry over green fund cuts

Age
28 January 2011, Page: 4

THE car industry and unions have reacted fiercely to the abolition of the green car innovation fund, warning jobs were at risk, as the federal government whittled its environmental focus to a carbon price. The solar industry also said it was astonished that the Labor government had again ripped funding from programs to develop its technologies.

"You don't assist those affected by floods by causing damage to other industries", said Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar. "It is a bitterly disappointing decision". "The manufacturing industry is under significant pressure at the moment with the high Australian dollar and cutting any program that has potential to attract investment is the wrong way to go", said AMWU national secretary Dave Oliver, who immediately protested over the decision to Industry Minister Kim Carr.

The axing of the federal government's $1.3 billion Green Car Innovation Fund "came out of the blue", industry sources told The Age. "There was no forewarning of this", a source said. Mr McKellar said contracts already in place will be honoured, but several projects in the pipeline, including one in Victoria, were now under a serious cloud. The government had already moved to wind back the fund in August, after the Gillard government recommitted to the goal of a carbon price. The Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout welcomed the scrapping and scaling back of a raft of green programs that she said were inefficient. "If we are going to have a market-based mechanism, we don't need them. They are very, very expensive", Mrs Ridout said.

But the Climate Institute's chief executive, John Connor, said putting a price on carbon didn't replace the need for investment in clean energy technology. "No one is shedding a tear for the demise of the 'cash-for-clunkers' program, but slashing investment in utility scale solar or carbon-capture-and-storage technologies, let alone solar hot water programs, is extremely shorted-sighted", Mr Connor said.

Australian Solar Energy Society chief executive John Grimes said the cuts would undermine investment certainty for businesses looking to build largescale solar power plants. Funding for the long promised solar flagships program to build four large solar plants has now been cut twice. Another $190 million has been deferred to beyond 2014-2015.

Cuts announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard also included $160 million from a solar hot water rebate program and $85 million that would have been spent on unprocessed claims for the $8000 rooftop solar panels rebate cancelled in June 2009. Mr Grimes said the solar flagship program which was raided last year to pay for the now abandoned "cash for dunkers" scheme seemed to be the first pot the government drew on when it needed cash. "We are not creating an environment where the solar industry can plan and invest to grow for the future", he said.

He said sales of solar hot water systems were likely to ride the same roller coaster as rooftop photovoltaic panels after the government program was cut short. "You will see the industry crash", he said. Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said it was ironic that the government's first response to a climate change disaster was to cut funding for climate programs.