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

I thank my honourable friend for the question. As the member for Reid knows, providing a welcoming and stable policy environment for investment, particularly in renewable energy, has been the centrepiece of our policy since we came to office. From the passage of the Climate Change Act, legislating our targets to provide that certainty, through to the Capacity Investment Scheme and the Future Made in Australia Bill that we introduced today, it is all about attracting investment, creating jobs and reducing prices.

Thats why we've been able to see an increase in renewable energy in our grid by 25 per cent. It's why the Minister for the Environment and Water has been able to approve more renewable applications than the Abbott and Turnbull governments combined—enough to power two million homes. That's why we've seen 8.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy in our system, and it's why the Capacity Investment Scheme auction, which closed last week, for six gigawatts had a massive 40 gigawatts worth of bids for it. It shows the pipeline of projects that are ready to go with the right policy environment, reducing prices and creating jobs.

The honourable member asked me what policies we reject. We reject policies to rip up contracts and break up companies. The alternative economic policy of this country is to rip up existing contracts and break up companies. The Leader of the National Party said he was going to cancel all the offshore wind zones. When asked, 'Are you going to cancel Gippsland?' he said, 'No, because that's smaller than the Illawarra zone.' It's 15 times bigger, actually, but that's the level of analysis we get from the Leader of the National Party.

The one thing that combines these two policies—to rip up contracts for renewable energy and break up companies—is that they were designed by the National Party. I want to give credit where it's due. The current Leader of the National Party's ideas are just as dangerous as those of the member for New England. He's just much more effective at getting them implemented than the member for New England was. He's actually writing the policies of the alternative government. The once great Liberal Party of Australia has vacated the field for the National Party. When you hear that the National Party is writing economic policy you should be very worried. The only thing that should worry you more is when that policy is being written by a coalition of the Greens and the National Party together.

Putting the National Party in charge of economic policy is like putting the member for Hume in charge of a Facebook page—there are lots of things that can go wrong. We've seen the shadow treasurer rolled more often than a pair of dice at a games party. He's completely abrogated the field of good economic policy. What the Leader of the National Party is doing, to his credit—I always like to give credit where it's due. As a post-partisan figure at the dispatch box, I like to give credit where it's due. The Leader of the National Party smells weakness on the Leader of the Opposition. He smells policy weakness. He sees a vacuum and he wants to fill it. That means a big risk for Australian business, it means a big risk for Australian investment and it means a big risk for Australian jobs from the Littleproud-Dutton government.