Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. We stand by the evidence, which is that renewables are the cheapest form of power and the best way to get power prices down is to get renewables up. That's exactly what this budget has done: nearly $24 billion for clean energy, investing in Marinus Link, renewable energy zones, offshore wind, pumped hydro, community batteries, solar banks. All of this is making up for a decade of neglect, a decade of denial, a decade of chaos.

On those opposite's watch, we had four gigawatts leave the system and one gigawatt come in. That's what occurred from those opposite. Common sense tells you that, with demand and supply, if you have less supply but demand is going up, then you will have pressure when it comes to prices. But, of course, those opposite were too busy fighting for power amongst themselves to worry about generating power for the country. That's essentially the problem that occurred. They had a rotation of ministers. Every time that they had the potential of an energy policy being adopted, even ones that could have been adopted with bipartisan support, instead of adopting them, they just rolled the leader. That's what occurred. They were too busy worrying about their own squabbles.

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