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

I want to thank the member for Macnamara for his question. He's a wonderful local member and a huge supporter of renewable energy.

The transition to renewables is real and it's happening, but it's no thanks to those opposite. It's no thanks to the Liberals, it's no thanks to the Nationals, and, frankly, it's no thanks to the Greens political party either.

Those opposite had 22 energy policies when they were in government, and they didn't land a single one. They were warned that 24 coal-fired power stations were closing, and they did nothing to replace the energy generation capacity that was leaving the grid. Frankly, the delays and the dysfunction scared renewables investment offshore.

But I understand why the Greens political party are a bit sensitive about this as well. They may well regret teaming up with the Liberals to knock off the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Because of that, we saw an extra 80 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution enter the atmosphere. They may well regret putting the renewables transition years off track because of the fact that they teamed up with the Liberals.

Frankly, it's up to us now to work overtime to get the renewable energy transition back on track, and, thankfully, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has been doing that. He's told us that we're up to 25 per cent renewable energy in our grid: cheaper, cleaner, renewable energy. As environment minister, I'm ticking off a new renewable energy project about every fortnight. That contrasts, seven to one, compared with coal and gas projects: seven renewable energy projects to every one coal or gas project that's being approved.

What is the risk to the renewable energy boom under Labor? The risk is sitting here and the risk is sitting right up there. We know that the nuclear fantasy proposed by those opposite is too slow and it's too expensive. We know it's too expensive. The estimate for the cost of it is $600 billion. But of course it's not the Liberals or the Nationals telling us the cost of their own policies. No; we're relying on experts for that. Those opposite say they know the cost, but they're not prepared to share it with the Australian public.

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