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

The member for Isaacs booms out 'rubbish'. It was a rubbish idea; you are quite right. These moments of candour on your part are very helpful. It was a really rubbish idea to have 40 per cent of your state's energy coming from wind power and doing nothing about storage, nothing about backup, except praying that you would be able to keep sucking energy out of Victoria's brown-coal generators. That is not a plan; that is complacency—it is negligent; it is Labor sloth.

The honourable members opposite know very well that their 50 per cent renewable target will drive up the price of power. They know that Australians will have to pay a lot more on their power bill because of their policies, but they will not say by how much. The Leader of the Opposition, himself, no financial slouch—formerly a director of a superannuation fund and formerly the assistant Treasurer; he has a whole history of looking at public finances—could not give the answer. He could not give the answer. Four times he was asked and four times he ducked the question, until Sabra Lane aptly summed it up by saying, 'Leader of the Opposition, you're out of time.'

We saw last night, too, the shadow Treasurer and that interview which is possibly the biggest train wreck of four or five they have had this week on the subject.

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