Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member might laugh, but there is not much going on in New South Wales; there is not much going on nationally. We hear laughter and complaints from those opposite. But you are in government. It is your job. The Labor Party has a national gas reservation plan. We have not heard those opposite talk about that. In case the member is wondering, I was talking about that in 2013. These problems have been a long time coming, and there has been every opportunity for the government to act. But, instead, what we have is a Prime Minister who is looking into things. He is a mirror. We have a national commentator. We have a government that wants to assert that there are all these problems. If only there were someone there to fix them. Well that is what national governments should do: they should look down the track and make sure there is a national energy market that is operating.

We all know we have to manage this change. We have old assets needing to be retired. We have to get into renewable energy in a way that provides regular suppliable power. We have to protect the Australian gas market against the export price. These are all challenges for a national government, and only a Labor government will do it.

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