Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If we are really serious about reducing the carbon dioxide emissions in this country, building 2,000 wind turbines is a tokenistic act to make us feel good. If we are really serious about having to reduce CO2what we should be doing is looking at replacing our coal fired power stations with nuclear power stations. That is what we should be doing. If we are fair dinkum. If we do not say that, we are simply hypocrites.

In the future, all of us would love to see renewable energy replace fossil fuel, but to do that we have to get renewable energy at a cost below that of fossil fuel. The best way we can do that is not to waste $20 billion on the construction and rollout of another 2,000 wind farms. That money should go into research and development. If we are able to create some form of renewable energy that is at a lower cost than coal or gas we can roll that out not only across the nation but also across the world. By going down the track of spending and investing that money, we are simply making ourselves poorer and making it more difficult for us to achieve that target.

I could go on with this bill for many hours. In conclusion, I appreciate the difficult job the ministers had in negotiating this renewable energy target. This is the least damaging of what was already a damaging bill. Yes, it would have been better if we had got that number lower. That would have made our country more prosperous. It would have helped us create more wealth. It would have helped us invest more resources into the research and development of renewable energy that would actually do the job—rather than simply waste $20 billion on the construction of these 2,000 wind turbines. I thank the House.

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