Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Farrell, you talk about it being a storm. It is a problem—you want to talk about science being applied to policy. Again, Senator Carr, you are the champion of the Chief Scientist and you are the champion of science in informed policy—

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—

and yet who the hell was talking to the energy minister from the South Australian Labor government when they decided to jack up their Renewable Energy Target but not worry about ensuring that there was actually going to be a secure supply? Or to deal with the intermittent pulsation of renewable energy power supplies? They did not worry about that. You did not worry about that, because you are all about the emotional response. You do not care about engineering and you do not care about economics.

The things that will actually make a difference here in this country for the power prices that senators opposite were talking about is ensuring that state governments get on board and get serious about setting appropriate targets. I could go on and on. I am quite devastated that I now only have 30 seconds to go, because I did have a lot to say!

At a federal level, if the Labor Party are serious about jobs and about cost-of-living pressures then they will be looking at the Finkel review. They will be looking at how they can put pressure on their state colleagues to ensure that they are doing what they need to do so that we get access to reliable and affordable energy. The Chief Scientist says that coal is part of the mix. You do not like us to say it, but that is what the science tells us. You must accept the science.