Weatherill scraps RenewablesSA
Feb 21, 2012
Steven Marshall MP
Shadow Minister for Industry & Trade
Shadow Minister for Defence Industries
Shadow Minister for Small Business
Shadow Minister for Science and Information Economy
Shadow Minister for Environment & Conservation
Shadow Minister for Sustainability & Climate Change
Weatherill scraps RenewablesSA
The Weatherill Government has scrapped RenewablesSA only two years after it was established and terminated the contract of the Commissioner for Renewable Energy, Tim O’Loughlin.
It seems that Premier Weatherill has far less interest in the sustainability sector in South Australia than his predecessor Mike Rann.
Evidence given yesterday to the Budget and Finance Committee revealed that RenewablesSA, a cornerstone of former Premier Rann’s vision for the environmental energy sector in South Australia, will be ‘transferred’ to DMITRE.
This is despite the Government releasing the Renewable Energy Plan for South Australia in October last year, which stated that RenewablesSA provided “the most supportive regulatory frameworks for renewable energy development in Australia”.
Chief Executive for the Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy, Geoff Knight, said that despite closing down RenewablesSA, the Renewable Energy Plan for South Australia was still Government policy.
How can the Weatherill Government still be using this plan as its policy, when it has just closed the central body upon which the entire plan hinges?
“The Labor Government has released this plan, but within only three months the Department is gone, the Commissioner is gone, and the grants programs relating to this area has been cancelled,” Shadow Minister for Environment and Conservation Steven Marshall said.
“Unfortunately for South Australians, Premier Weatherill clearly has no interest in renewable energy in our State.”