Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Wills for his question. I know that he is a very strong supporter of renewable energy, as are his constituents in that seat of Wills.

Mr Speaker, I am delighted to report to you and to the House that the rollout of renewable energy is proceeding apace in Australia. In fact, since coming to government, we have ticked off more than 45 renewable energy projects, and I have another 128 before me for assessment. The great news is, of those 45 renewable energy projects that we've already ticked off, that's enough to power about 2½ million Australian homes.

Some of the terrific examples that I can point to are the 1,500 megawatts Yanco Delta Wind Farm in New South Wales that will generate enough electricity to power around 700,000 homes, and, in Queensland, the Stony Creek Wind Farm, which will generate enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes. The other piece of good news is that the speed of approvals for these projects has just about doubled since we came to government, and it's not just renewable energy projects that we're assessing faster; it's all of those projects—it's the housing projects, it's the transport projects and it's the resources projects. All of the projects are being assessed faster because we've made it a priority for our government.

We know, on this side, that renewable energy is both cleaner and cheaper. Australians have worked that out; that's the reason that more than three million Australian households have solar panels on their roofs.

I was asked about alternatives. The only alternative we have from those opposite—we had 22 energy policies when they were in government, and they didn't land a single one—is No. 23, nuclear power, which will be built in decades time, as soon as they've sorted out four little problems, as the Prime Minister pointed out yesterday: safety, disposal, cost and location. But, as soon as they've got that sorted, they'll be delivering those projects in the coming decades.

Those opposite talked about cost-of-living pressures, and of course energy is one of those for homes and for businesses.

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