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

Our government will make sure that Australia meets its emissions reduction targets. We'll do that whilst ensuring that we keep energy affordable and reliable in Australia as well. We're not going to be driven by the ideology of the Greens. We're not going to be backed into some viewpoint that you must shut down coal plants to meet those targets. We will make sure that the targets are met in a way that guarantees the affordability and reliability of energy around Australia. That means listening to the energy experts, as well as the ideologues that the Greens like to cite or point to. That means ensuring that the policies we apply are actually balanced to meet the emissions reduction targets, but also to ensure we don't cripple the economy at the same time. Of course, we must ensure that our economy continues to have reliable baseload dispatchable energy. As I said the other day, if the Greens had their way, we wouldn't have any reliability in our energy grid left. The problems that SA are seeing would have been multiplied right across the country. We will not allow that to occur. (Time expired)