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

We know that those opposite have turned a blind eye to energy issues and particularly to the spiralling costs in the energy sector. There was a real call-out last week, when Mr Butler, the shadow energy minister, admitted that Labor was warned about the impact on the gas export market and the way it was operating. They were warned that there would be higher prices. They were warned that there would be tighter supply. But, of course, they did nothing. It has taken the Turnbull government to address these issues, to take action. We see the irrationality of the Labor Party's energy policies writ large in my home state of South Australia, where this summer we are going to see Jay Weatherill and the state Labor government fire up diesel generators to keep the renewable energy in the system going. That, of course, is the madness of the policies that those opposite propagate, which have driven prices up, driven reliability and affordability down and created the type of circumstance that hurts Australian households and businesses. (Time expired)