Solar industry warns of job cuts as climate change laws delayed

The solar-panel industry has warned that hundreds of jobs are at risk after the Government’s Renewable Energy Target legislation was sent to a Senate committee, delaying it for at least another two months.

The move is a second blow to the industry, after the $8000 solar panel rebate was axed by the Government last week, due to higher-than-anticipated demand.

The legislation would force entities with massive energy bills to use 20% of its power from renewable energy sources, but now the industry warns that its delay will result in job cuts and lower revenues.

Guy Montgomery, general manager of Queensland company Solar Xpress, says that his business, and the industry as a whole, will be negatively affected by the delays and will have to reduce staff levels.

“The industry isn’t having a good couple of weeks. Basically it means our revenues are going to be a lot lower than what we expected, we’re going to have to look at our staffing levels – we will cut staff.”

Montgomery also says that with the loss of two major solar rebates, his business will now have to restructure its operations.

“That’s something we’ve got to sit down and work out over the next few weeks. It’s not good when a political football is created over something that’s so good for the environment.”

Liam Hunt, communications manager for the Solar Shop, says that the decision has left the Solar Shop in “limbo” until the legislation is approved.

“In terms of cutting staff, we’re just going to have to wait and see. It’s not something we want to do, and hopefully we won’t have to do it, but as we go along we’re going to have to see what the impact will be on business.”

“This whole thing is incredibly frustrating, it seems there’s a lot of politics going on in order to score points. Meanwhile, retailers and consumers are the ones who are suffering. We try to give them the best advice we can, but when the industry is changing week-in and week-out, it leaves us in limbo until we know what’s going on.”

The coalition previously said that it would pass the RET bill through parliament, on the provision the government would remove a link between the legislation and the emissions trading scheme.

“We will move in the Senate next week to decouple the RET from emissions trading and if we are successful, we are very predisposed to pass the RET laws,” opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt told The Australian.

But climate change minister Penny Wong has said the decision to delay the bill is due to opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull’s “lack of leadership”, and that he could not convince other Liberal party members of the importance of climate change policies.