Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this MPI on investment in renewable energy which, indeed, does make economic and environmental sense. Unfortunately, the energy crisis that we're facing has come about because of this government's energy policy paralysis. This paralysis has been going on now for years and years because of an ideological split within the Liberal government—we had it first with the Abbott government and now with the Turnbull government—against investment in renewable energy. This investment is occurring right across the world to ensure that a number of nations, including ours, meet the Paris climate agreement that we signed on to.

Let's have a look at what's occurred under this government's watch. Under this government's watch we have lost one in three renewable energy jobs, and yet we hear nothing from the Turnbull government senators about those jobs at all. What else have we seen? We've seen wholesale power prices double. We've seen carbon pollution consistently rising, with the most recent data showing an annual increase of 1.4 per cent. We have this ridiculous internal division within the Turnbull government and their bizarre ideological obsession to stop investment in renewables. We should be ensuring that we put in place good energy policy for not only Australia but our region.

The clean energy target, which has been proposed by the Chief Scientist, Dr Finkel, is designed to get investment flowing—we know investment means economic growth; it means jobs—to ensure reliable and affordable electricity is guaranteed for Australian households and Australian businesses. Inevitably, those old, outdated coal-fired power stations will therefore start shutting down, just as we have seen in other parts of the world. There is nothing new here about Australia tackling its energy policy. It is the same story the world over.

But what did we have on the weekend? On the weekend, the National Party sought to veto the consideration of the Chief Scientist's report, which the government itself commissioned, remember—this is the government-commissioned, Chief Scientist's report introducing a clean energy target. They voted to reject it—let's just make that very clear: the National Party, which helps form government in this country, voted to reject Dr Finkel's clean energy target of 42 per cent of renewables by 2030. That is the kind of division and the kind of farce that is going on. But, unfortunately, it does not just stop there.

We now have the CEO of AGL stating that the company is getting out of coal in the next five years—he has said it way ahead of time, with plenty of time for transitioning—and yet what does the government do? The government wants AGL—and is meeting them today, and urging them—to keep this old, coal-fired power station open beyond these five years. In a tweet last week the CEO of AGL, Mr Vesey, rightly pointed out:

Keeping old coal plants open won't deliver the reliable, affordable energy our customers need

He knows exactly the industry he's playing in, because he's the CEO of AGL. He hasn't got politics on his mind—he has the interests of his shareholders, of the company and of the customers on his mind. And yet what does this government come along and do? It wants to play politics, because it can't get the support from the National Party for a clean energy target for an investment in renewable energy. And in turn, it will add to the diminution of renewable energy jobs that has been going on for years now under this government's watch. This is driven by a baseless ideology. It is stupid political opportunism, where the Nationals want to tear down this one piece of bipartisan energy policy that is providing new generation into the system, rather than support renewable energy.

I thought that the coalition was a coalition that supported market forces, that actually responded to the economics of policy. And yet we've had so many economists come out in support of carbon pricing, an emissions trading scheme, clean energy targets—action on climate change in an economically modelled sense—and this government has turned every single one of them down. But let's not forget that this is the same Prime Minister who once supported these things. This is the Prime Minister who once supported a CPRS. Just as we almost moved towards it, of course, he lost his leadership and the rest is history—and now he's completely changed his tack on things and doesn't even know what he believes anymore, but he is hiding the fact that he was an environment minister and someone that supported a CPRS. The conservative elements in the coalition are insistent, not just on the current arrangements of old, coal-fired power stations staying open beyond the next five years, like AGL's—they probably would have preferred Hazelwood's to have stayed open as well—but, no, they actually also want new coal-fired power stations. You know, it is just beyond belief where this government is leading our nation, at a time when there are countries like China that are putting hundreds of their coal-fired power plants on hold.

Today, I met with a number of really concerned citizens about what this government is doing. I met with them to hear what their views are—the views of people living out there who really want their government to take some action to invest in renewable energy. The group is named the Citizens' Climate Lobby and they want to look at the implications of climate change on Australia's national security. Indeed, they're a group of volunteer citizens who advocate for us to address global warming in the most transparent and equitable way. I had a really good chat to them, and I've had a chat to a number of community groups and NGOs in the field who made it very clear that this is not the way that they want their government headed—to be keeping dirty, coal-fired power stations open. They want their government to be investing in renewables. I look at my own home state, where we have a government owned electricity system based on hydropower and added to with wind power. These are the kinds of investments they want because they know they're a part of the clean energy future. But, instead, what we have is a government continuing their war on renewable energy.

I say to the government senators opposite: if you were really serious about fixing the energy crisis, instead of meeting Mr Vesey from AGL and demanding or urging him to keep open a dirty, coal-fired power station that, in five years, he as CEO has said his company wants to close because of the fact that it, as he said, won't deliver the reliable, affordable energy their customers need, you could, indeed right now, do three things. You could intervene in the gas market so that more gas can stay in Australia for Australians and, therefore, at lower prices. You could end this ridiculous war on renewables—this ridiculous war on solar plants, wind turbines, hydro; all of this is just ridiculous. By doing that, you could implement the clean energy target that Mr Finkel, the Chief Scientist in this country—who submitted a report that the government commissioned—said should be introduced, which would drive new investment and jobs in energy. You could stop the blackouts this summer by developing a strategic energy reserve so that there is enough power when we really need it. Stop playing politics, Mr Turnbull. (Time expired)