Electricity Price hike for 2013

A 5% electricity price rise was announced by the press yesterday following the Australian Energy Regulator decision.
Reasons given include network expenditure and bushfire safety. I have seen the changing of wooden power poles to new larger concrete poles in my area which has a certain amount of natural bush and paddocks nearby, increasing the bushfire risk.
The Federal Government rebate on Solar PV systems will be reducing at the end of this year so I am hoping householders are putting their savings into getting their systems purchased and installed.
With my smart meter installed recently I am able to track how many kWh's I've generated and how many I have used. On a good fine day I can generate more than 6kWh's per day.
On my current figures I have generated 27.38% of what I have used. Not too bad for a 3.5 person household with fridges, freezer, computers and TV's. The average sized system is now 2.6 kW unlike my 1kW system. So upgrading to that level would mean most of my electricity costs (in summer at least) would be paid for by the Solar PV. An encouraging thought.
So my next hurdle is to upgrade mysystem so that I can keep up with the technology and ability to absorb the increasing costs.
Given that I am on the Victorian Premium FiT I'll bet that if I upgrade to a larger system I will be placed on the new, low FiT. This, plus the reducing rebate, means the payback period for the system will need recalculating. If the period is greater than 8-10 years, many people will find it unattractive to install Solar PV even though they know the environmental benefits are great.
I agree with reducing the rebate down to almost nothing as the Solar Industry needs to stand on its own feet and not be knocked by the hot and cold winds of Governments, State or Federal. So yesterday's release of the Renewable Energy Target Final Report will be on my Christmas reading list. But here is the response from the Clean Energy Council.
So the challenge to all people and our Governments - how to design a system which takes into account the true environment costs not just the flawed, manipulated economic system we are chained to.