If you give people money to do something, of course their going to do it. From the ABC:
The Federal Government says strong uptake of its solar hot water rebate is proof that its economic stimulus package is working.
More than 6,000 Australians have applied for the $1,600 rebate since it was introduced last month.
The Environment Minister Peter Garrett says it is good news for jobs and small businesses.
"This marks a really, really positive day for Australian industry, for the solar hot water industry, for the retailers, for the installers, for the plumbers, for the tradies, this is going to drive economic activity through the sector," he said.
"It 's environmentally friendly, it stimulates the economy and it's stimulating local jobs and local manufacturing. That's the critical thing.
"So we have positive proof that the Government's decision in the economic stimulus package to provide a non-means tested rebate for solar hot water systems is paying us immediate dividends."
Absolutely. Everyone who has applied for or installed a solar panel is benefiting immensely, along with the solar industry and all of their employees. But this was not the way to go about doing it. Mr. Garrett is missing the bigger picture: who did you steal from to pay for these rebates? What industry is now suffering or was never created because you wanted to subsidise the solar energy industry? How about you stop subsidising electricity (excuse the wikipedia reference but I'm feeling lazy: the Australian government pays $9-10bn a year keeping the electricity price down) and then maybe people would actually choose for themselves where to get their electricity?
Stop complaining about people using too much power causing outages or killing our planet. If you allow the market to determine how much individuals are willing to pay for electricity (hint: scrap the subsidies/rebates etc), in other words let the price system work, we wouldn't have power outages. The electricity companies in Australia are just one of many government institutions (water, transport are others) that actually advertise telling people not to use their product! What kind of self-respecting business goes around telling people not to buy their product?!
This is just another state band-aid on a state-caused problem at the taxpayers' expense. Wake up and smell the bacon Mr. Garrett, quit wasting our money.
