Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his question because it is about a practical approach to how we as a nation move forward to a low-emission economy. In that context, whilst we remain in a state of waiting for the outcome of the complex debate in the Senate about how we put a price on carbon, the government moves forward with a key focus on the issue of technology. It is in that context that I remind the House that one of the key components of the government’s budget last year was a $4.5 billion clean energy initiative. Central to that is a focus on carbon capture and storage. I also remind the House of key grants in areas such as trying to facilitate the development of a geothermal industry in Australia.

That takes me back to a key component of the clean energy strategy, the government’s $1.6 billion commitment to the Solar Flagships program, which is about bringing forward in a great leap the commercial deployment of solar energy in Australia. The program itself represents potentially the biggest commercial deployment of solar energy in the world—

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