Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hanson-Young for the question. In terms of part of the question, as to why the Labor Party supported the government, I can't answer for the Labor Party, except to perhaps say that they had a temporary dose of common sense in supporting the coalition government when it comes to energy policy. But, when it comes to our support for unlocking gas in the Beetaloo basin, this is about a gas led recovery and our strategy to make sure that we have reliable and affordable energy as we embark on a process of ensuring our economy continues to reduce its emissions and that we are able to play our part in an international effort to reduce emissions without killing our economy. By supporting gas, we are actually supporting a whole range of energy sources. If you want to see the massive uptake in renewables that we have seen in this country at a record rate, you need to make sure that you have the firming power, the base-load energy, that enables our economy to continue.

The question that needs to be asked of the Greens is: which base-load energy source do they support? I have never actually heard the Greens indicate which base-load energy they support. They don't support gas. They don't support coal. They don't support hydro. Which particular source of base-load energy that would support renewables—solar energy and wind—do the Greens support? This government supports renewable energy but we also support affordable and reliable energy for our economy. That's what we are doing, and that's why we're supporting the Beetaloo basin and the opening up— (Time expired)