The Tasmanian Greens are calling for the scrapping of unnecessary regulations introduced last year, which potentially add thousands of dollars to the cost of solar panel installations.
Greens Energy spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the solar industry was only recently informed of a regulatory requirement for homeowners to pay council planning fees and an accredited builder to install solar panels, and apparently in some cases, an engineer to certify the roof structure.
“This means thousands of solar panel customers who signed up before the recent off date have been underquoted by potentially thousands of dollars,” Mr Booth said.
“This pointless piece of red tape will drive up the price for consumers and could send some solar companies to the wall.”
“Wrapping the building industry up in this type of worthless red tape and over-regulation kills off jobs and makes it harder for mums and dads to invest in solar.”
“Every solar installation is already required to be engineered, installed and inspected according to Australian Standards and these regulations are nothing more than paper shuffling nonsense.”
“The Minister has apparently indicated the regulations will be reviewed, but you don’t need a review to get rid of this odious and unnecessary over-regulation.”
“What we need is a decisive commitment from the Minister that this regulation will be thrown out.”
“Homeowners should have the right to enjoy, maintain and improve their properties without a posse of coupon clippers and bureaucrats feeding off an unnecessary regulatory regime.”
Download: Letter sent by the Department of Workplace Standards to solar energy industry representatives on 20 September 2013:
