George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

There is only one party that takes an ideological approach to energy policy, and that is the Australian Labor Party. We saw the result of an ideological approach to energy policy in the state of South Australia last year, when the entire state was blacked out because the Premier, Mr Weatherill, and his government did take an ideological approach. They struck a 50 per cent renewable energy contribution with the electricity market in South Australia without backing it up, so there was no redundancy in the system. That is what an ideological approach gets you. We take a pragmatic approach. We take an approach based on economics and based on engineering, not on ideology, so as to ensure that we have affordable electricity and secure supply while meeting our international commitments.