The NSW Premier has decided that commercial contracts in NSW are not worth the paper they are written on and has moved to retrospectively legislate to change existing Solar/Wind gross feed in tariffs. Slashing the rate by one third at the stroke of pen and foreshadowing special legislation to bar Solar Energy and Wind Energy power system owners from suing the NSW government.
The move breaks new ground in public administration – with the retrospective nature of the move unprecedented. Moreover, the action goes to the heart of Liberal Party philosophy which until now has vehemently opposed any other like actions that involved a retrospective aspect to a change in government policy.
Across NSW thousands of farmers and small businesses have invested up to $80,000 each in renewable energy systems under a business model based specifically around a feed in tariff of 60 cents per kilowatt hour.
The debate as to whether the scheme was ever a good idea, are immaterial to the commercial contract nature of the arrangements. Dozens of renewable energy companies have sold systems to farmers, retail business centres, and homeowners via a commercial financial arrangement that was supposed to run through to 2016.
In my case, we are somewhat lucky that we only installed 1.25 Kw system, but we came within an hour of signing off on a much larger system that would have cost over $30,000.
Moreover, in 2009 I started a new wind energy business that aimed to sell 10Kw wind power system to farmers in my local regional coastal area of long suffering dairy farmers. It goes without saying I'm extremely glad I did not proceed with this business as I did not have the deep pockets needed to support the maintenance costs during the early roll out period when many of the engineering problems first appear in smaller wind systems.
The NSW premier should get used to his new nickname – Discount Barry – as from now on, anyone in NSW who is unhappy with any of their government or utility bills should have no hesitation in simply lopping a third off using a Discount Barry 30% off coupon. Simply ask your new local LNP member to pass a law to retrospectively protect you from being sued and matie – she'll be right.
Seriously, this has to be ambit claim to protect the new Discount Barry government from the wrath of voters as power prices continue to rise. Discount Barry can simply say he tried to do something about the blowout in the Solar Rebate Scheme costs but he couldn't legally change the commercial contracts of 120,000 electricity customers.
The NSW government may instead try to ram the legislation the upper house through by paying off the Shooter's Party with open season on hunting in National and State Parks, the rescission of coastal marine parks such as Jervis Bay, and the ending of Ethics Classes to appease Fred Nile. If this is the case then Discount Barry should seriously reconsider if he is fit to lead an honest government which can be trusted to enter into binding commercial contracts. As why stop here, when you can so easily cut the cost of infrastructure development by cutting a third off pre existing contract payments to construction companies, cleaning contractors, or better yet – just the wages of state employees by 30%.
The real killer in all this is how it relates back to Tony Abbott and he saying last year that you should only trust what he has written down. Now it appears that Liberal Party doesn't even care if it's a written commercial contract. We'll change it when and how we choose to and pass laws to stop you suing for breach of contract.
Historically, the only reason the former NSW Labor government offered a 60 cent gross feed in tariff was in direct reaction to the heat the Federal Labor government got when it cut the old Howard government scheme in 2008.
At the time, readers may recall that the Liberal leadership went ballistic over this, with that Greg Hunt, Tony Abbott and others visiting their local solar installation companies crying crocodile tears for the business impact of what was not even a retrospective move and which in fact had a forward cut off date that allowed solar companies to close off existing business in an orderly and fair way.
Moreover, Discount Barry was a keen supporter of the NSW Solar Rebate Scheme of the previous government when it was introduced – completely ignoring the obvious flaws in the scheme as he sought to chase the votes of those who cared about the environment.
The question for the people of NSW is what is Discount Barry planning next.
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