Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Rural and regional communities can be absolutely assured that this government is committed to the jobs and industries that will come from clean energy transition, and will in fact secure the futures of regional communities.

We know that there may be changes in some communities. No-one denies that. And had Liberal members of your government decided to attend the Jobs and Skills Summit, they would have observed a very extended discussion between a range of stakeholders about the way that we will support communities to transition. At least part of that response lies in the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, which will provide various forms of support for new jobs and industries with a focus, in part, on clean technology and with a strong focus on regional communities.

Unfortunately, the actual consequence of the policy settings that have been in place for the last nine years, under the previous government—your government—have meant that regional communities have not been able to benefit from the scale of investment that would otherwise have occurred had there been certainty for investors about the energy transition underway. We know that because during the period of your government, those investors, those businesses, came before parliamentary committees over and over again and said to us that this was the case. They said to us that the consequence of having 22 different energy policies, none of which was ever landed, was that a whole series of investments didn't take place. That has direct costs, but it also has downstream costs.

During that same period, four gigawatts of capacity left the energy system, and only one gigawatt was invested to replace it. That makes a real difference to manufacturing operations; it makes a real difference to power prices; it makes a real difference to the capacity of the National Electricity Market to perform its functions, and all of those challenges are on your head.

So Australians find themselves in a very difficult situation, and we are working methodically and carefully with industry to resolve it. Providing business certainty about our approach to climate and to energy is part of the repair job that is currently underway.

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Before I give you the call, Senator McKenzie, I just want to check something with Senator Pocock. When you moved your amendment, you said sheet 1621, amendments (1) to (5). On the sheet it says (1) to (6). Are you still including (6)?