Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am going to use my entire 20 minutes just for your benefit, Senator Edwards—every second. A quick word about the Palmer United Party, who we welcomed to this chamber after a long election campaign and, in the case of my colleague Senator Wang, two goes—with the Western Australia Senate election re-run. It seems to me that Mr Palmer has played a very clever game, in essence neutralising the parts of the Clean Energy Act that would cost his mining interests money and potentially—we still do not know—saving those parts of the package that could keep a viable renewable energy industry alive in this country while we run the clock down on this one-term, failed government.

I also acknowledge Senator Muir, who is on the record this afternoon proposing that ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, be saved, that it be given a stay of execution so that it can continue to invest in start-ups and the innovators and those who are not yet a commercial proposition but who, with a bit of care and attention and a few well-targeted dollars, might be able to make a go of it. The cross-benchers are seeing more sense than the government. The ALP, despite some of the strange arguments that it ran during the election campaign, stuck to its guns.

This policy is one of the reasons that the Australian Greens exist. It is one of the reasons we are here. The coalition, whenever this bill is committed to a vote, will stand condemned by not just those who will be sitting on the opposite side of the chamber from them but their kids, their grandkids and those who will never know our names. The coalition will stand condemned.