Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That might be because he is a bit embarrassed by it. Do not get me wrong: I am the first to agree that we do need certainty in energy policy, and I would say that we probably need it most in South Australia, where their target is 50 per cent by 2025 and is now standing at 41.3 per cent.

Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton, I know you are a bit of a rooster in your electorate, and there are plenty of people who would like to rename your electorate of Parkes the electorate of Coulton. But the member for Paterson is wrong in saying that they would get someone else to play you, because you would not play any part in that. You would not stand up, talking in the third person—about any movie, about your most disastrous time—or sit on a park bench and say, 'And I say to myself, Dasher', speaking about yourself in the third person. You would not do that on this side of politics; it is only those on that side of the game who want to be movie stars and talk about themselves in the third person. What a disgrace that was!

Anyway, South Australia, where Premier Jay Weatherill has admitted his $550 million favour, is where we need certainty in energy policy after the blackouts in September last year, which affected 1.7 million. And there were further blackouts throughout the state in December, January and February. Everybody holds up the South Australian model as a rolled gold standard for the Labor Party. And just to tell you what happened in the WA election—and I see the member for Burt here, and the member for Moore, who are both WA members—what happened was that the member for Cannington, 'Johnno the Commo', during the Labor commitment—

Opposition members interjecting—

Senator Conroy called him that, in public, and thanked him in his speech for being such a dedicated communist. Anyway, he made a commitment around the Labor Party' South Australian standard—a commitment of 50 per cent. It was so strong that he backed down from it within two days. That is how rolled gold the Labor Party is with their energy policy.

These blackouts in South Australia cost the businesses at least $450 million. They affected companies—BHP's Olympic Dam, 3,000 people; the smelter in Port Pirie, 750 employees; Arrium steelworks in Whyalla, 1,600 employees. At the AMEC conference we heard one of the speakers talking about the fact that under the Labor policy we are going to have companies like BHP at Olympic Dam having to bring their own power plants to their new projects. You cannot rely on the Labor policy, and everyone knows that.

Do you know where else we need certainty in energy policy? We need it in Victoria, where they have targeted 40 per cent by 2025. It is costing at least $14 billion and currently stands at 12.1 per cent. There is a long way to go. I would say that we probably need certainty in energy policy in Queensland, where there is an even more outrageous target of 50 per cent by 2030 and it is costing at least $27 billion. That is a lot of money. The Grattan Institute have described their modelling as 'magic pudding economics'. Do you know what the common theme is with these three examples—South Australia, Victoria and Queensland? They all have Labor state governments continuing to set reckless renewable energy targets with no thought spared for the economic disasters they are causing to their constituents.

I have a quote here—this is about the ALP policy—that says:

The lame claim that it is only when in government that the necessary facts to back up the targets can be found is, in my view, completely farcical. You can’t set policy on a wing, a hope and a prayer … Labor cannot out-green the Greens.

I wonder who said that? Graham Richardson, a former Labor minister, in The Australian, 6 January 2017. He is even calling out your own policies. He also went on to say: 'The farce of this policy has become obvious to all. Labor has no plan on how this target would be reached. Sadly, Labor is playing games with people's lives.' They need to get on board and show bipartisanship with the Liberal Party.

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