Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to contribute to the debate on renewable energy, a debate that, under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's watch, has got out of control. This weekend the party that wants to take everything out of our bush capital, The Nationals, held its annual conference here in Canberra, but that act of hypocrisy has nothing on one particular motion that was passed at their conference on renewable energy this weekend. The Nationals passed a motion which calls on the federal government, of which they are a key junior partner, to eliminate subsidies for renewable energy. This is a party of government calling for an end of support for the renewable energy industry!

I note that the Nationals, through their leader in the Senate, have continued this argument in the chamber today. Instead of proposing positive ideas to address our nation's energy crisis, instead of embracing job-creating opportunities of renewable energy, the Nationals are seeking to tear down the piece of bipartisan energy policy that is providing new generation into the system. Rather than propose positive ideas to address our nation's energy crisis, the Nationals are driven by baseless ideology and political opportunism. This is the same political party that regularly travels across regional Australia promoting the use of renewable energy, cutting the ribbons on renewable products and praising the jobs and investment created in regional communities, that then comes to Canberra, holds a national conference and stabs the people who work in renewable energy in the back. For the Liberals and Nationals, it's always about politics. They're so hopelessly behind on the energy debate that they've jumped even further into the abyss. It is clear that the current energy policy paralysis is the fault of the government, through its ridiculous move in the last parliament to repeal the Clean Energy Future package, with nothing in its place. Instead of trying to fix the problem, we had the National Party trying to blow up the one piece of bipartisan energy policy. Instead of embracing sensible solutions for our current and future energy needs, we had the National Party, with former Minister Canavan and the member for Dawson, supporting the extreme position of simply ending all government support for renewable energy.

It's important to note that there has always been government support across the energy sector regardless of generation type. It is a core business of government to provide the energy needs for householders and businesses. There is government support for poles and wires. There was government support for building the coal- and gas-fired power stations in the first place, and that was a good thing. The provision of reliable energy is absolutely the role of government. The one-eyed approach that the Prime Minister is appeasing—the one-eyed approach that we must hark back to the good old days—will just not cut it. Holding the ridiculous ideological positions of one generation type over another is not going to improve the reliability, is not going to put downward pressure on prices and is not going to do anything for the environment.

I note that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said, in response to the motion passed at his party's conference, that Australia must comply with its international obligations. Mr Joyce went on to say that we must not abscond from the reality of our economics. Our international obligations include the Paris agreement. The world's first comprehensive climate agreement has three aims: holding the increase in temperatures below two degrees, increasing our ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and improving financing pathways for low greenhouse gas emission energy development. Mr Joyce would be well advised to consider that our economics are intractably linked to our international obligations and that investment in renewable energy makes sense for both the economics and the environment.

Even still, the reality of our economics is that, regardless of government intervention, the price per unit for renewable energy is on a downward trajectory and the banks are refusing to finance new coal-powered generation. The reality of our economics is that, under a business-as-usual situation, prices will continue to rise but, with a sector-wide approach through a clean energy target, prices will fall and reliability will increase. It's time for Mr Turnbull to show some leadership on energy. Labor has offered and is still offering to work with the government to find middle ground and set a place for a credible, low-carbon energy policy that will take us into the future in Australia.