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

I thank the member for Melbourne for his question. Australia, when we are at the COP summit—where Minister Bowen is representing Australia—will be back around the table with credibility, as we have been at the Pacific Island Forum, and as we are in our region, because we are a government that is taking climate change seriously. We are, a government that understands that in order to take climate change seriously, you need to bring the community with you. You can't just flick a switch or have the best of intentions. What you need is a plan and a strategy to get there. We have that through the safeguards mechanism, which is the key to driving that change to 43 per cent reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. In the last month, this has been supported by the measures we took on the Capacity Investment Scheme, which will provide for that certainty to de-risk projects, to make sure that the investments flow through in renewable energy. You can't simply say, 'We'll just change overnight.' What you've got to do is make sure that energy security and reliability is part of the system. That's why, for example, gas will continue to play an important role in providing stability in the system. That's how renewables will be able to operate.

We have a comprehensive plan including our Rewiring the Nation plan based upon AEMO's Integrated System Plan that's been in place for a long period of time. When you combine all those measures, all of which were supported by the crossbench—the legislation in order to achieve those targets, in order to put the safeguard mechanism in place—

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