Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator Di Natale today relating to renewable energy.

This policy that we have seen from the government today is perilously close to a clinically insane policy. We know that Australians want more renewable energy. Poll after poll shows that Australians want more renewable energy, yet this announcement, on the face of it, sounds the death knell for the renewable energy target and sells out every single Australian who wants to see strong climate action and wants to see more renewable energy in the mix. It sells out those Australians. It sells the Great Barrier Reef down the drain. It sells the Murray-Darling Basin and its ecology, on which so many regional jobs depend, straight down the drain—flushed after the Great Barrier Reef. It's worth pointing out that as we stand here today the Great Barrier Reef is dying, there are horrendous wildfires burning in Portugal and—hello!—there's a tropical cyclone bearing down on Ireland. Yet this is the day, of all days, that the Prime Minister announces he is selling renewables down the drain and is going to hop straight into bed with his mates in the coal sector. Make no mistake, this government has not only sold out future generations; it has sold out our climate for a few months respite from the climate criminals like Tony Abbott on its backbench.