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

To be fair to the honourable member who asked the question, he had a plan for Liddell. He planned to nationalise the Liddell power station, if only he was in a job where he could have done something about that—if only he had a role in the government where he could have made a decision! The former Minister for Energy had a plan for Bayswater when the closure was announced. He issued a press release saying the Morrison government expects the market to step up. That was his big plan: the market to step up to deal with the closure of Bayswater. That's all he had. I guess that was better than the closure of the Eraring power station, where the minister didn't even know it was being closed until he read it in the newspaper. That was the level of trust between the New South Wales energy minister and the federal energy minister. The New South Wales energy minister—a Liberal minister—was involved in the planning of the closure. He didn't trust the federal minister enough to tell him.

We know that the regions are going through economic change, none more so than the Hunter. That's why we have plans. Those opposite don't get it. We saw the coalminer-cosplay senator, Senator Canavan, in the Hunter the other week. He tweeted:

Just passing by the Liddell coal fired power station and want to say THANKS to all the workers who make modern life possible!

It was Bayswater power station! That's how much they understand.

I tell you who does know the Hunter: the member for Hunter, the member for Paterson, the member for Shortland and the member for Newcastle, because they're delivering upgrades for the Newcastle Airport, they're delivering the Muswellbrook Bypass, and they're delivering the Muswellbrook town centre upgrade. The member for Paterson and I are delivering for MGA Thermal—$1.3 million to support them, which was delivered today. That's what delivery looks like. What that side of the House looked like was a whole lot of words and a whole lot of nothing.

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