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

The honourable member, who is leaving the chamber now, simply cannot cope with the truth. The truth is that South Australia's experiment has failed. And it is all very well for the delusionists on the Labor side—

Opposition members interjecting—

It is all very well for them to shout and yell. I do not think they would be shouting and yelling at the South Australian businesses that are here today, whose businesses and whose employees are being put at risk and whose competitive position is being disadvantaged, or the pensioners in South Australia who cannot afford to turn on the air conditioner because it is the most expensive power in the country and, when they can afford it, they cannot be sure that it will come on when they flick the switch.

There is no point in Labor denying the fact that every South Australian knows: if you introduce a massive amount of variable renewable energy, of wind or solar, into your grid, and you do so without proper planning, without the backup, without the firming power, without the storage, then you increase the vulnerability of your grid, and that is exactly what AEMO has said. It is precisely what they have said. So they have made the grid less resilient—more vulnerable to the blackouts that are destroying jobs across South Australia.

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