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

I'm not entirely sure what Senator Bernardi means by 'contractual certainty', but I would emphasise, as I have already emphasised to the chamber today, that the government is genuine in its conversations with the owners of Liddell about how we work to extend the life of operations. These are proper, serious considerations to make sure that we do get the best and most out of our coal-fired generators. I'd say in relation to Snowy Hydro 2.0 that actually the confidence that the business case, and the likely return on investment of that, stacks up is very high. We already have around 350 people working on the feasibility and the development of that, and the potential for that to provide more certain base load power that can be put into the grid not only at the times when it's needed but also at the times when prices would otherwise be high, to drive down the wholesale price at those times, providing not only a reliability benefit but also an affordability benefit to households and businesses. (Time expired)