On June 5th, 200 concerned current and future solar owners came together in Brisbane - in the heart of Premier Campbell Newman’s electorate - to say: Keep Solar Strong.

The event was the kickoff of Our Solar At Risk - public meetings happening all over the country to talk about issues related to solar and prepare to take action to protect solar. It was the first time large number of Solar Citizens came together to talk about all things solar.

And, of course, being the Sunshine State, we had to start in Queensland!

"It was great to have a forum for solar users and owners to voice their concerns and have a panel of knowledgeable people able to address these concerns."

"It was really excellent to have the opportunity to hear other people's experience with solar PV and to get some idea of the level of support for solar and for activity to protect and expand the solar industry."

On the same day, Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls made the comment that solar owners are “champagne sippers and part of the latte set,” insulting the nearly 760,000 solar owners in the state.

Solar owners came together to prove Mr Nicholls wrong - and talk about the ways to deal with the Queensland Government’s constant demonisation of solar.

The evening included Giles Parkinson, editor of RenewEconomy, MCing, as Nigel Morris, director of Solar Business Services talked about solar issues, and Lindsay Soutar, National Director of Solar Citizens, talked about the ways Solar Citizens is campaigning to protect solar.

You can read Nigel’s presentation here.
You can read Lindsay’s presentation.

Of course, bringing so many solar owners together caught the interest of media, and Solar Citizens was featured on ABC News, Channel 10, Channel 9, the Brisbane Times and heaps of radio stations across the State.

Our message was loud and clear: solar owners are “champagne sippers” - we’re concerned about power bills, the environment, and, most importantly, we’re voters.

See more photos from the QLD meeting on our Facebook here.