Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Decisions made in this place have consequences. This is not a philosophical debating club at the local university or high school. Decisions that are made here impact on people. We've seen this week the debate on the export of live sheep—a great debate here, with lots of virtue signalling and passion. What about the people back home on their farms, having their livelihood ripped out? We've seen motions from the Greens and the teals to ban fossil fuels, without any understanding that everything we have has an element of fossil fuel. This phone's got fossil fuel, and this desk. Everything we have has fossil fuel in it.

Now, in the last couple of weeks, after the coalition came up with a serious policy with regard to securing a zero carbon baseload power with nuclear energy, we're seeing some of the debate go into the ridiculous. We're seeing Simpsons memes. We've seen poor old Blinky Bill with three eyes. If those on that side believe that their intermittent power can look after all the energy needs of this country, they need to engage in a debate based on the facts, not on the ridiculous memes in a Simpsons cartoon.

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