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

I released the report. I announced we had accepted all nine recommendations in principle, and we will now work with states and territories and local government and communities to implement those recommendations. We also released, on coming to office, new guidelines for better community engagement. I asked the Australian Energy Market Commission to improve the rulemaking for better consultation with regional communities. These are the things we have done which they didn't do.

I can see that the Leader of the National Party has been on a bit of a journey. When he was in government, the Leader of the National Party said, 'Renewable energy—I think it's a good thing.' Then in June last year he said, 'We think there's a place for renewables, on our rooftops and wind towers, but it should be offshore, not near the Great Barrier Reef.' He has supported offshore renewable energy provided it's not near the Great Barrier Reef, where none of our offshore wind zones are. None of our offshore wind zones are near the Great Barrier Reef. Then in August he called renewable energy 'a virus'. He called it a virus! Now he says solar should be the only source of renewable energy. He has been on quite a journey has the Leader of the National Party. Consistency is not his strong point, nor is delivering better outcomes for regional Australia, which we are committed to doing.

See this speech in context