By Tim Hollo

Against the backdrop of several appalling Rudd Government Budget decisions that will undermine the renewables industry in Australia even further (some of which are detailed here [0]), Christine Milne introduced a Private Member's Bill in the Senate this morning to establish an comprehensive national feed-in law.

Feed-in laws support the rapid and unlimited growth of the renewables sector by giving certainty to investors, guaranteeing them a market at a set price.

This feed-in differs from others proposed or legislated in Australia thus far in several important ways, as discussed in a previous post here [1].

The four key points are:

1) it is national in scope, effectively over-riding the various different state and territory schemes;

2) it covers the full range of renewable energy technologies, instead of limiting itself to solar PV;

3) it pays generators for all the power they generate, instead of net power for rooftop solar on households; and

4) it leaves the price guarantees, specifically targetted for each technology, out of the legislation itself, giving flexibility to the regulators to pull appropriate levers, giving extra support where necessary and reducing it where technologies are maturing.

You can read the Bill itself here [2], the Explanatory Memorandum here [3], and Christine Milne's Second Reading Speech here [4].

(This blog first appeared on Greensblog.org [5] on 15 May 2008).

Tim Hollo is media and communications adviser to Greens Senator Christine Milne. A big fan of pollieblogging, Tim's vision it to make open source politics a reality in Australia.