Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I understand the sensitivity of those opposite about the four un-fun facts of their record. The first un-fun fact is that in their time we had four gigawatts of energy generation leave the system and only one gigawatt of energy generation come on, because the previous government did not encourage renewable energy generation. We saw a 17 per cent decline in renewable energy generation over their period. Second, is that the previous minister announced a billion dollars of funding to get 3,800 megawatts onto the system and didn't deliver a gigawatt, a megawatt, a watt or an electron. Not one. Third, their signature policy, Snowy 2.0—we heard a lot about it. Good project. Did anybody in the House hear the minister come to the dispatch box before the election and announce it was running 18 months late? I might've missed it! Anyone? No. I don't think it came up. It wasn't mentioned. Finally, the result of their delay and denial was the dishonesty: the minister changing the law so he would not be held to account for his actions, citing an instrument to keep the facts from the Australian people. That's what the previous minister did. We are dealing with the implications of a Taylor-made crisis and we're fixing the mess we inherited.

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