Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said:

"Minister Wong created the problems with the renewable energy target, and she can and should fix them herself. Jobs are on the line as we speak, so she should stop the delays, stop the obfuscation, stop the flick pass to COAG and fix the problem now.

"It is becoming tediously repetitive that whenever the Federal Government wants to bury a problem of its own making or avoid doing anything to promote energy efficiency or renewable energy, it immediately defers to COAG, knowing full well that COAG rarely meets its timelines and only ever comes up with lowest common denominator outcomes.

"Minister Wong does not refer decisions about the fossil fuel sector to COAG - she jumps through every hoop to give them what they want. Putting coal seam methane on top of the target didn't go to COAG, so why should putting solar hot water, heat pumps and solar PV on top?

"Minister Wong is deliberately clouding the issue by focussing on spot prices and wind energy. In fact, the low spot price risks damaging the solar industry early next year, but the long term price is also too low and that risks damaging large-scale investments such as wind farms.

"Minister Wong and Greg Hunt used COAG to bury the push for a national gross feed-in tariff. I fear she is doing the same for the urgent fix of the renewable energy target."