Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Collins, I move:

That the Senate:

(a) express its disappointment in the Turnbull Government for its chaotic and disunified approach to energy policy; and

(b) notes that the Prime Minister's compromise policy on the National Energy Guarantee will not see a single renewable energy project built for a decade, an energy plan that will see the rates of installation of rooftop solar cut by a half, and an energy plan that will channel billions and billions of taxpayers' money to building new coal-fired power stations.

I am of the view that the government have such a chaotic and disunified approach that they really don't have much time left. This is a government in absolute chaos. What we are saying in this proposition is that, during the period of the National Energy Guarantee, not one single renewable energy project would be built; the installation of rooftop solar would be cut by half; billions of dollars of taxpayer funding to new coal-fired power stations would be required; and the government should not do this because it's a government in its death throes, it's a government with a weak Prime Minister and it's a government whose members are carving each other up before our very eyes. Ten coalition members are reserving the right to cross the floor on the National Energy Guarantee, and the government have the hide to demand that the Labor Party sign off. This government has got the hide to demand that state governments sign off when substantial numbers of their own members don't believe in the National Energy Guarantee, when substantial numbers of their own members are opposed to the National Energy Guarantee.

I watched Senator Abetz just an hour ago on Sky, and the best Senator Abetz would say about this policy was that he was prepared to continue a watching brief on the Prime Minister's signature policy—a watching brief. This is a former senior cabinet minister who says that he's not prepared to sign off on this. He's only prepared to give it a watching brief. He says it's too early for him to make a decision to support or oppose the NEG. If it's too early for a former cabinet minister, one of the most senior people in the coalition, to either support or reject it, why is this weak Prime Minister trying to push the Labor Party and the states into support for it?

And then he says, 'Well, we've had some movement.' Of course Senator Abetz and these 10—and I think 10 is probably not the exact number; I think there might be more—will get some movement from this weak Prime Minister. And then the rhetoric came in. They wanted to put pensioners before Paris. Where was Senator Abetz—where was this government—in 2014, when the budget that they brought down would cut pensions by $80 over the decade? Pensioners weren't being put before anything then. The government were simply in their austerity phase and trying to push costs down for government, and one of the biggest casualties was going to be pensioners in this country. They would have $80 a week less to spend. I don't buy this fake concern that this coalition has for pensioners in this country, because that's all it is. It's a fake concern.

Then he argued that he wanted cheaper electricity. The way you get cheaper electricity is through renewables. That's what the electricity companies are saying. That's what the electricity companies are doing. That's what's happening overseas. And yet the numbskulls in this government want to try to push to build new coal-fired power plants when everywhere else the major push on energy is to renewables. And here we have Senator Abetz—