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

Senator Bilyk, what you say is absurd. What you say, Senator Bilyk, with all due respect, is absurd. In this important national debate about energy policy, the Turnbull government has commissioned the Finkel report in collaboration, by the way, with state governments, both Labor and coalition, in order to ensure that all the options can be considered in a thoughtful, methodical, careful way. We are making decisions in relation to energy policy; the decisions that your side of politics failed to make when you were in government, as Mr Butler, the shadow minister, has lately conceded; decisions of the kind state Labor governments in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland are refusing to make because they are dictated by an ideology. We are not dictated by ideology. We are dictated by what is in the interests of the Australian consumer.