George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

No, Senator Di Natale. It has everything to do with keeping the lights on. That's what it has to do with: keeping the lights on. In order to keep the lights on, in order to ensure that the Australian people have affordable and secure and reliable power supply, we adopt a pragmatic, engineering based and economically informed agnostic approach to energy sources. We are not ideological about this, Senator Di Natale, as you are. We are not theological about this, Senator Di Natale, as you are. We believe that renewables have a very important role in the energy mix. But we also think that fossil fuels will continue, for a very long time to come, to have an important role in the energy mix.

If you go to the streets of your home city, Senator Di Natale, I'm sure you will find that people are more interested in ensuring that power remains affordable and reliable than where it comes from.