Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2015, which is all about the legislative underpinnings of the renewable energy target. It has three features. The first is the rescaling of the RET from 41,000 to 33,000 gigawatt hours, the second is assistance to emissions-intensive trade exposed industries and the third is the inclusion of wood waste in the RET. As other speakers have indicated, we support the first two elements but not the third.

Like the member for Canberra, like the member for Isaacs and all of my colleagues, we are big believers, on this side of the House, in renewable energy. For my 20 years in the Labor Party, we have been the party of renewable energy. We believe in the transformative economic benefits of wind, hydro, geothermal and especially solar energy.

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