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Our day in the sun
Dear NEVILLE —
I’m writing this from Parliament House in Canberra, in a break between meetings with MPs, because I have to tell you about the huge day we had yesterday. Yesterday, on the first day of summer and the start of the last parliamentary sitting week of the year, we made our voices – and the voices of all of you who are standing up for solar – heard here in Canberra. Our day started on the lawn in front of Parliament House with a giant beach-towel sign spelling out a message that couldn’t be missed:
We want our government to protect the Renewable Energy Target and to save Australia’s solar future, not destroy it.
We were joined on the lawn by Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten, and Leader of the Greens Christine Milne, who both emphasised the importance of the work Solar Citizens does. They had a chance to meet the amazing volunteers who had travelled from all over Australia to be at Parliament to tell their stories of uncertainty in the industry and support for solar, directly to federal politicians. Mr Shorten told us:
There was also a crowd of media with us on the lawn yesterday and we were on ABC24. Perhaps it was our giant bottle of ‘Abbott’s Sunblock’, our passionate chanting of ‘vision not regret, protect the RET!’ or the fact that new polling shows that 85% of Aussies want more rooftop solar and 76% want to increase the Target, not scale it back.*
But after a morning in the sun, our day wasn’t over. As soon as the last beach towel had been folded and put away, we headed inside Parliament House to begin our full day of scheduled meetings with MPs from both major parties. For several of our volunteers, it was their first meeting time with a politician but they were there to tell their story and they knew they had Solar Citizens from all over the country behind them, so a few nerves weren’t going to get in the way. Our country’s decision-makers heard from our team of 24 Solar Citizens, including solar workers like Rhonda and Tom, whose jobs are at risk from the uncertainty in the industry, and solar owners like Peter, a retiree who wants every Australian to be able to go solar like he did. 
Meeting with Russell Matheson, Member for Macarthur.
Meeting with Alannah MacTiernan, Member for Perth. Meeting with Melissa Price, Member for Durack.
Meeting with Craig Laundy, Member for Reid. We even booked in a last minute meeting with Bob Katter after a Solar Citizen got chatting to him in the Parliament House cafe. He wanted to hear more about why protecting the Renewable Energy Target is so important, and so do most MPs. Our teams reported plenty of enthusiasm for solar power among MPs, though many needed to be reminded of important facts about the popularity of the Target. Several had to be pressed on the need for the Government to re-commit to the full 41,000 gigawatt hour, which is so crucial to see solar and renewables grow. We know that sitting down with our elected representatives, like we did yesterday, is the best way to deliver a powerful and direct message to grow solar and protect the Target. Over one hundred of you have met with your MP already in recent months via our Time to Shine campaign. If you haven’t yet taken this step, will you help us magnify our efforts and book in a meeting with your local MP? You don’t even have to go all the way to Canberra like we did yesterday. It is exciting to be here in the halls of Parliament getting our solar message through, especially knowing that we have all of you behind us. Thanks for everything you’ve been doing to stand up for solar and the Target. In solar-darity! Claire PS. You can see more shining photos from our huge day of solar advocacy yesterday on our Facebook page here. Please share with your friends and encourage them to join our movement to protect Australia’s solar future. Solar Citizens |
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