Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps Senator Mason is unaware of the government’s commitment to renewable energy, which is four times greater than ever was delivered under his government. We have a commitment to a renewable energy target of 20 per cent by 2020. The legislation on that is to come into the parliament this year and will be discussed at COAG prior to that. That will deliver a fourfold increase in renewable energy from the levels that we currently see as a result of the Howard government’s failure to invest in this sector.

In addition, we have a half billion dollar Renewable Energy Fund, which those opposite may recall the Prime Minister brought forward to the current financial year to enable renewable energy proponents to put in applications for that fund this year. That fund is within the portfolio of my colleague Mr Ferguson.

So it is incorrect to suggest in any way that this government does not understand the importance of renewable energy and the renewable energy sector. In fact, I remind those opposite that under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme renewables are projected to expand by some 30 times. If those opposite believe that they are friends of the renewable energy sector, the saner minds on the opposition benches who are not so ideologically opposed to any action on climate change might actually suggest that ensuring we drive the investment in renewable energy is a good policy and a policy that should be supported by the opposition.