A NSW government MP who has hit out at the slashing of the state's Solar Bonus Scheme has the right to her opinion, Energy Minister Chris Hartcher says.
Liberal upper house MP Catherine Cusack has accused the O'Farrell government of betrayal over its decision to close off the solar program to new members and to cut the rate for feeding energy back into the common grid.
NSW Energy Minister Chris Hartcher announced on Friday that the scheme will no longer be open to new applicants and that the solar feed-in tariff was being slashed from 60 cents per KwH to 40 cents via retrospective legislation.
The move sparked demonstrations in Sydney on Wednesday, with up to 2000 protesters vowing to fight the changes.
"Every electricity bill they receive from July 1, 2011 each quarter until December 2016 will anger them, because it will list the solar bonus rebate at 40 cents and remind them in exact dollar terms of the extent of the betrayal," Ms Cusack was quoted as saying by Fairfax on Thursday.
Mr Hartcher said Ms Cusack, the coalition environment spokeswoman when in opposition, was entitled to her view but defended the government's decision.
"Catherine Cusack, like every member of the Liberal Party and National Party, has the right to express her opinion," he told Macquarie Radio Network on Thursday.
"At the end of the day ... governments have a responsibility to taxpayers and consumers.
"When schemes have gone totally out of control they have to rein them in, even though that's a very hard decision."
Mr Hartcher conceded that the coalition voted in favour of the Solar Bonus Scheme while in opposition.
But he said the costs have since blown out.
"It was a noble concept and we were told at the time it would cost $355 million and that it would have an expected take-up rate of around about 50,000 people," he added.
"It was not properly costed by the (previous) government.
"It was never monitored by the (previous) government.
"And it's now blown out to $1.9 billion costs.
"That's simply unsustainable."
Mr Hartcher said the government was taking legal advice over its plan to introduce retrospective legislation on the tariff cut.
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