Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I confirm that the modelling was done well before today. I confirm that the government believes the modelling remains credible nonetheless. I would emphasise to anybody who wants to have a look at the documents tabled tonight in relation to the commitments given to the crossbench that, overwhelmingly, those commitments are about making sure that there is appropriate scientific information provided to governments and to the community in relation to wind farms, that there is an appropriate mechanism to resolve concerns or complaints from communities in relation to wind farms, that there is appropriate transparency in relation to all of those measures and that there is encouragement in relation to support for large-scale solar or solar technologies in general. I do not think any of those matters, generally speaking, would be of concern. While I appreciate that the Greens in particular and Senator Lazarus are eager to fly every furphy they possibly can in relation to the impact of this bill, or this deal, we believe this bill will deliver 33,000 megawatt hours. I outlined before the ACIL figures in relation to the anticipated new wind capacity and the anticipated new large-scale solar capacity, and I have just summarised that the deal will largely provide, hopefully, greater community confidence in relation to how wind farms are regulated and managed and will hopefully provide a little extra assistance, incentive and support in relation to solar.