Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I feel a little bit like what the Grateful Dead said. They said they were the most forgettable thing at Woodstock, because they came on between The Who and Jimi Hendrix. After 'Tina Turner' has done her bit, I think this is going to be a rather forgettable presentation!

But what I am here today to say is that one of the prouder moments in my political career was with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull where we dad Andy Vesey in one of the offices here. He accused us of bullying to try and keep Liddell Power Station open. We need to keep Liddell Power Station open because otherwise the lights in New South Wales and Australia will go out. There are four 500-megawatt units in Liddell Power Station, but currently it's around 1,200 or 1,300 megawatts. If it shuts down in April, the lights will go out. We had blackouts in Sydney merely a day or so ago in the heatwave because of the drain on power. It is incumbent upon the current government to do what both Malcolm Turnbull and I did. You must call AGL into your office and you've got to keep this power station going. I can assure you that one-third of the power for New South Wales comes from Liddell and Bayswater, and, if you shut Liddell down, the light are going to go out. It's time for you to show gumption, stand up, drag them into the office and keep Liddell Power Station open. If the lights go out, it happened on your watch.

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