Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens also note the report from the regulator, which makes it very clear that any shortfall could be met through increased renewables—solar and wind—and a combination of demand management, efficiency, investment in the grid and smart software, rather than extending the life of this polluting, belching climate-destroying guzzler of a coal-fired power plant.

It is absolutely remarkable that the business community is fleeing coal-fired power because they see it as a bad investment, yet here we have the government—the champions of free market economics—criticising the opposition for wanting to intervene in the marketplace, when here they are adopting some of the most interventionist, backward looking, retrograde policies in the energy area that one could imagine. What hypocrisy! Solar and wind are the answer, not coal.