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

I thank Senator Lambie for her question. To directly answer her question: no, I do not agree that would be the case, because that would only create further disruption and further uncertainty around energy investment in Australia. The matter of the renewable energy target was settled in this parliament around 18 months ago. At that time the coalition government took action to bring it to a level of generation that was closer to the 20 per cent target that had initially been set. It will need about 23 per cent under current projections. So we brought down the actual level of generation that had to be made to meet that target. In doing so, it provided a more achievable, certain environment for energy generation in Australia, which of course means that that keeps price pressures down to some point.

But, in terms of the renewable energy target, the big threat that would happen in terms of its operation would be if the Labor Party's 50 per cent renewable energy target were to be applied. They went off to the last election with a target of 50 per cent by 2030. But, of course, there was absolutely no detail of how that would be achieved, let alone any detail of how much it would cost, let alone any detail of what the flow-through impact would be in terms of the reliability of the electricity market or in terms of the cost to consumers. Just last weekend, Mr Butler, the shadow minister for the Labor Party, was asked whether they still stood by their 50 per cent target. And, of course, he had absolutely no answer to that whatsoever. There was no clarity as to whether this target remains Labor Party policy. We are certainly committed to making sure that—