Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

We are in the middle of the greatest economic transformation of our lifetimes. Businesses have made it clear that to unlock the tens of billions of dollars this country needs to transition to a net zero economy, we need a constant and unwavering commitment from the government to see this through.

Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of jobs are on the line. Tens of billions of dollars of investment is ready to go, but it needs policy certainty. Business and investor peak bodies say that the next five years will determine our prosperity for the next five decades. But today our economic transformation is in great peril. The coalition has wilfully and recklessly jammed a stick into the spokes of the Australian economy by refusing to reveal a 2030 emissions reduction target and by confusing the country with an embarrassingly underdeveloped and economically destabilising nuclear policy.

It we lose investor confidence, billions of investment dollars will go overseas and we will not see them again. Australia risks becoming a bad place to do business. Instead, we must become a clean energy superpower. The coalition must stop appeasing climate sceptics in its party and it has to stop jeopardising investor confidence in our energy transition.

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