Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Nothing better illuminates the delusion of the Labor Party than that question. They are in a state of denial—a complete state of denial. Let us go to the Australian Energy Market Operator's report, and what does it say? Talking about the growing proportion of variable renewables in the South Australia grid, that is to say wind and solar: 'The growing proportion of this type of generating plant within the generation portfolio is leading to more periods with low inertia and low available fault levels, hence a lower resilience to extreme events.' That is what AEMO says. The reality is that of course it was not the windmill that caused the transmission line to fall down. Nobody said it was. What happened was typical of the lazy, negligent, complacent Labor government. They introduced more and more variable renewables into the mix, increasing the vulnerability of the transmission network, increasing the lack of resilience of the network—as AEMO has said—and, when the storm came, the network went down. If the power station at Port Augusta had been operating, it would not have—

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