After Labor’s Minister for Solar proclaimed the Solar Homes Program was fixed, the program administration and technology continues to spectacularly frustrate and fail customers.
Ms Bath said the Minister for Solar, Lily D’Ambrosio took months to act and make any changes to her poorly planned Solar Homes Program, however September’s allocation again shows she has her head firmly wedged in the sand.
“At the end of August, Minister D’Ambrosio confidently proclaimed customers wanting a Solar Homes Program rebate will no longer need to rush online each month to battle the solar lottery,” said Ms Bath.
“However Septembers’ activities has done nothing to alleviate solar customers concerns or made the Solar Homes Program any fairer.
“In her quest to save face all Minister D’Ambrosio has achieved is further customer pain spread over a longer time frame.
“Minister D’Ambrosio has failed to address the ridiculous administration burdens and inadequate technology that supports the Solar Homes Program.
“Customers want to access a solar rebate, not purchase tickets to a rock concert or the AFL grand final.
“The frenzied demand shows how desperate Victorian’s are to save money due sky rocketing power bills.”
Round 1 of the Solar Homes Program for September saw Solar Victoria’s portal crash and in placed in outage for days. When it finally came back on line, the solar homes packages were exhausted within 30 minutes.
Round 2 of the Solar Homes Program during September saw allocations exhausted within 15 minutes.
Customers must wait until 1 October before they can attempt to apply again.
Ms Bath said the industry interference and manipulation caused by the Solar Homes Program did not create a level playing field or a competitive market.
“Minister D’Ambrosio must admit the Solar Homes Program is bad economics.
“It is not the role of the state government to interfere and control industry supply and demand like it has done.
“Minister D’Ambrosio and Labor continue to arrogantly ignore the public.
“The Andrews Labor Government must fix the Solar Homes Program rebates allocations if Victoria’s solar industry has a fair chance of surviving.”