Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I have never particularly been attracted to hugging coal, I've got to say! I think that coal is an important energy source for Australia. It's an important energy source globally. We, as a government, support an energy policy framework which is technology agnostic. We're in favour of renewables. We're in favour of coal. We're in favour of gas. We're in favour of all of those energy sources which help us ensure that we can (1) keep the lights on and (2) deliver reliable energy supplies in a way that is affordable—that is competitively priced.

We know that, under Labor, the experiment of an excessive Renewable Energy Target has been tried, by the South Australian state Labor government. And guess what? They couldn't keep the lights on. That is one of the reasons why prices across the National Electricity Market have been pushed up.

We are pursuing reforms to energy policy which will help bring down electricity prices and ensure reliable energy supplies into the future, because that is very important. That is very important for families around Australia. It's very important for our competitiveness as an internationally competitive economy. We understand that for Labor all of this is a game. They're not even listening to the answer. We also know that Bill Shorten, if he were elected Prime Minister, would bring back a carbon tax, a carbon tax which would push up the cost of electricity, which would harm the economy, which would put jobs at risk and which would hurt families around Australia wanting to get ahead.