Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This issue goes back, I suppose, to a bigger issue or discussion about global warming. Can I say that from the amount of hot air that's come out of the mouths opposite—there has not been much else—global warming has been done a lot of harm today. We are talking about energy. We talk about renewable energy, and carbon emissions are part of that discussion. Renewable energy targets are part of that discussion. There's been a very healthy debate in this country about both of those.

I want to start by saying that as a government we have international obligations set way back, with the Kyoto targets that we set, I think, back in 2005 with carbon reductions emissions. We as a country will meet that international obligation. We also have a Renewable Energy Target that was set by this country a few years ago, for 2020. Both those targets we're going to meet. We're going to meet the international obligations that we've made about carbon emissions reductions, and we've made a new target in Paris as well for 2030. We are committed to those reductions and, as I said, we'll meet the renewable energy targets we would have. Those opposite said we weren't committed to either of those.

But there's a really integral issue here when we're talking about energy, and that is that, at the moment, there is an issue with renewable energy. There is a bit of a cost with some forms, but there is certainly an issue with reliability. I'm sure all the Labor MPs get very brave when they go into their inner city leftie forums and say, 'We're going to meet higher new renewable energy targets,' but the thing that they don't answer, the thing that no-one over there has said—they'll talk in their slogans, but none of them have said this—is how they're going to guarantee supply. How are they going to guarantee supply from renewable energy targets given the technology that's available? In Finkel's report they talked about it as well. There is at most a four-hour storage capability within big solar projects. We have also seen this with wind. Dare I say that South Australia is the canary in the coalmine—excuse the pun. South Australia is the canary in the proverbial coalmine, and it died. It died because, with the high Renewable Energy Target they have of 40 per cent or 50 per cent or whatever it is, they proved that right now it is not reliable. It might change tomorrow, and sweet hallelujah! If someone comes up with a brainstorm tonight and solves the storage issues with renewable energy and the cost of renewable energy, the debate will be over. If it's cheap and it's reliable, it will be happening, but right now it is not reliable, and what South Australia did was prove that. Their reliance on renewable energy proved that it is not right now a reliable source of energy.

So, as a country, we have to be very careful and very considered about this. This isn't some ideological beating of your chest about renewable energy. This is a very important debate about transitioning to a source of energy that will become in the future, I'm sure, a very important part of our mix but, in that transition, making sure that our energy is cheap, because we compete, and, very importantly, making sure that our energy sources are reliable. On that front, unfortunately, South Australia has been the very unfortunate guinea pig and has shown that is not the case.

So we as a government are committed. As I said, we will be meeting our renewable energy targets that we've set by 2020. We will be meeting our global emissions targets that we set back in Kyoto in 2005 as well. While we're meeting those targets, we're not beating our chests and running around all the inner city leftie forums saying we're going to a renewable energy target of 40 or 50 per cent by 2030. That may happen if there are changes in technology. If there are technological advances in battery storage, that may happen before 2030, but right now that technology is not there. To be planning and doing that without that technology, without being able to guarantee that supply, is very dangerous. Again I reiterate that South Australia have proved that. Until the technology to go to that space is there, it's foolhardy. We can go there when the technology's there to make sure that renewable is a reliable source of power. Thank you.

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