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

I can also inform the House that electric vehicle sales are up 87 per cent, in the latest figures, thanks to the electric vehicle tax cut put through by the government and opposed by the opposition.

Under the Albanese government, we don't just want to make renewable energy in Australia; we want to make what makes renewable energy in Australia. We want to make solar panels and batteries and electrolysers and transformers in Australia. That's why we have the National Reconstruction Fund. Up to $3 billion is allocated for clean energy investments, and $1 billion is allocated—as the Minister for Resources said—for adding value to critical minerals. We are the world's largest supplier of so many critical minerals, but we also want to process and add value, and that takes investment and that takes governments working together because this means jobs.

Who could be against such a policy? Who could be against investing in Australian jobs? Perhaps the same operation that opposed the 43 per cent target being legislated, which has attracted so much of that renewable energy investment. Or perhaps it is the same people who opposed the electric vehicle tax cut, or perhaps the same people who opposed their own safeguard crediting mechanism, which they suggested just 12 months ago.

When the member for Hume is not congratulating himself on Facebook, he's in a debate with himself about policy about safeguard mechanisms.

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