Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

I have enormous sympathy for where Senator Xenophon is coming from. I recognise very much the issue that he raises and, particularly as a fellow South Australian, I recognise the importance of the development of the geothermal sector within our home state and of course the extraordinary importance of it as a potential reliable baseload generator of power into the future.

We very much agree with the sentiment, with the direction that Senator Xenophon is talking about, but are not convinced at present that it is wise to make this amendment in the context of this legislation. It is an issue that I would hope will be considered in future reviews of the operation of the scheme and a future review of the legislation. We have consistently argued to somehow set aside part of the RET, now the LRET, for baseload power. We think that would still be a positive but, in terms of identifying just one sector and attempting to provide it with the treatment at present, we are not sure that is the best way to go. We will continue to agitate and lobby that there should be a clearly defined target for baseload power generation capacity in areas like geothermal, wave or tidal, and others that could be considered in that sort of context. Please, Senator Xenophon, do not see our opposition as being an opposition to the principle. It is a matter of trying to find a better way to get that principle accommodated in future legislation.