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

As I recall the question, it was about whether the cost in the $121 billion includes distribution. That was the question asked by the member for Fairfax. That was a very interesting question, because I have heard the Leader of the Opposition confuse 'transmission' and 'distribution' in the past. I thought: 'Oh, well, he's the leader; he's got to be across a lot of portfolios. He doesn't have to be across the detail.' We've just learned he's been ill advised by his shadow minister, because transmission is about the big interconnectors—the big interstate connections. Distribution is about poles and wires and telegraph poles in suburbs!

Regardless of how the energy is generated, you still need telegraph poles and you still need wires in the street—unless this is a secret part of the plan we haven't been told about yet: if it's nuclear, you don't need telegraph poles. That's what the member for Fairfax is putting now! Apparently, they're not going to need to invest at all in poles and wires in the streets. We're not going to need any new telegraph poles in new suburbs, because it all comes from nuclear, all of a sudden. They don't need any in France, apparently. In France there are no telegraph poles! This is news! Good news! This is the new golden age, where we don't need any telegraph poles and we don't need any wires.

The former member for Warringah, Tony Abbott, once said he was going to put them all underground in his electorate, but this is going one better: we don't need them at all! Now—

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