A report published today by the Victorian Auditor General’s Office has revealed Victorian Labor’s Solar Homes Program – glowingly described by Minister D’Ambrosio as one of her “proudest achievements” – to be an un-costed and underdeveloped program with an unquantifiable impact on consumer power bills and carbon emissions reductions.
The report reveals that the Andrews Labor Government lacked the ability to soundly and comprehensively consider the merits of the program because of a failure to fully develop a business case.
In fact, the Government dedicated just three months of planning to a program intended to run for 10 years and involve the expenditure of $1.3 billion dollars in Victorian taxpayers’ money.
The report goes on to find that three years into the program, the Government still can’t justify why the best solution to reducing Victoria’s energy costs is rebated solar photovoltaic panels, batteries, and solar hot-water systems.
In fact, Solar Victoria is unable to prove to what extent – if any – this program is actually reducing emissions and power costs for Victorians.
This will be of little comfort to the more than 100,000 Victorian households that have participated in the project to date.
The Victorian Liberal Nationals understand that Governments have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer-funded projects are underpinned by facts-based and results-oriented economic modelling – especially in an areas as critical as Victoria’s energy infrastructure and emissions reductions sectors.
Victorians need a safe pair of hands, rather than a Labor Government that makes decisions on the run. Only a Liberal Nationals Government will deliver that.
