Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken in this place often about how I think the government could be capitalising on the jobs and opportunities that the renewables sector has to offer. We should be leading the world, and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that, if Labor were in government, we would be. Australia and, I strongly believe, my electorate on the New South Wales South Coast in particular are uniquely poised to be booming in the renewable energy space. We know the community wants us to. We know the non-government sector and industry want us to. So what is holding us back? That's right: it's this government's failure to establish a coherent and clear energy policy. It is costing us jobs, it is costing us innovation and it is allowing our emissions to continue going up.

Only last week I put on the record my strong objections to the government's proposed changes to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation bill. At that moment in time, the proposal in front of us was to add gas as one of the industries the CEFC could invest in. I said I was concerned that the bill was an attempt to undermine the CEFC and fundamentally change its purpose, which is to support renewable energy generation. Oh, what I didn't know! Before too long, the Nationals had piped up again. The member for New England decided he wanted coal-fired power plants included as well. Somehow Barnaby Joyce thinks a fund that allows for investment in new technologies that help to lower emissions should invest in old fossil fuels. Go figure! And then what do you know? The Nationals' obsession with nuclear power reared its ugly head. The leader and deputy leader of the Nationals in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie and Matt Canavan—the former minister for resources, no less—decided they want the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in nuclear power. I have said it before and I will say it again: the coalition cannot be trusted—

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