Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Why would you want to deny the workers an education to upgrade their skills? I just don't understand that. And there's $2.5 million for a renewable energy training facility at Wollongong TAFE. Do you know how to spell TAFE? We must invest in our local workers to make sure we have the skills we need, moving forward, and the Albanese Labor government is doing just that. I know it's getting you angry. In addition, the Illawarra has been announced as one of six potential offshore wind energy zones, unlocking the path to cheaper and cleaner energy for hundreds of thousands of local residents. The Illawarra is quickly transforming itself into a renewable energy powerhouse. Companies like Green Gravity, Hysata, EcoJoule, Sicona and OceanX are all recognising our local industry capacity, our talent and our enthusiasm for renewable energy.

While those opposite spent nine long years on these government benches wasting time and announcing over 20 different energy policies, we have already gotten to work on our plan to deliver real action in preparing Australia for our clean energy future. Under the previous government, the former energy minister not only knew that electricity prices were skyrocketing; he ordered that the information be hidden from the Australian people before the election. Denial, delay, dishonesty—that's all we got from the previous government when it came to renewables, and now we're stuck cleaning up your mess.

But, as the budget showed, energy prices are a very real challenge for our economy, and there's no doubt that Australian households, businesses and industry are grappling with the impact. We are currently dealing with the most significant shock to energy markets in 50 years due to Russia's prolonged attack on Ukraine and an overreliance in Europe on one type of energy—namely, gas from Russia. Energy prices are forecast to stay higher for longer because global energy market disruptions have become more pronounced and are persisting longer than anticipated—and so are our domestic energy market challenges, which have been exacerbated by ageing electricity assets and inadequate policy certainty by those opposite to support— (Time expired)

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