Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to add my voice to the many voices of reason that are calling for a rethink when it comes to renewable energy subsidies or imposed market regulations by mechanisms like the mandatory renewable energy target for the proposed clean energy target.

It's time that we stopped and had a critical look at this and what is being achieved. It's time we had a frank discussion. It's time we acted in a practical way, rather than in an ideological way. The bottom line is that people are hurting. Household energy costs keep increasing; they more than doubled when Labor was in government and, unfortunately, they continue to rise.

This summer we are facing blackouts and forced power rationing, and our national grid is not even secure. This is madness, that a country as resource-rich as ours is in this predicament. It makes no sense for Australia to be closing down coal-fired power stations while hundreds are being opened up around the world—many of which operate on our coal. It astounds me that both state Labor in Queensland and the federal government are so in lock step with the Greens that they continue to push higher renewable energy targets to 50 per cent by the year 2030. It's a bad policy and it will hurt our consumers. I believe that we urgently need to rethink the ideology that has led us down this path. I want to reassure my constituents I will be pushing for it in this debate.

I will also acknowledge that in my electorate I have the highest amount of solar panel uptake of any electorate in Australia. They do that not because they are conscious of the environment but because they are conscious of the price point in their household budgets. As a government we need to work in that space, and I look forward to that outcome. (Time expired)