Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

We have a responsibility to provide electricity, not just here but around the world, and particularly in those nations where they're currently forced to turn to burning fuel or burning dung—using the most expensive and polluting methods that they can get their hands on in order to have the basics.

A specialist in Queensland told me a story that reminded me of this just the other day. He and his family emigrated from Kolkata. They took his younger brother to the hospital one evening, and at the hospital, which was experiencing intermittent power, they weren't able to do a scan of this child. They weren't able to examine him, and they sent him home with the family, where he died. He died of appendicitis—a burst appendix. This is shocking. So, when he came to Australia and studied and became a specialist, that is a reminder that electricity—reliable, affordable electricity—saves lives.

And we will only be able to do that with the continuation of coal-fired power and gas plants for the foreseeable future, because whilst there is this belief that we will be able to transition to renewable energy, whilst the Labor government has just agreed that China will be able to dump wind turbines on our shores, we do not have the technical capacity, and everybody agrees with that. There is nobody who will tell you that there is battery storage that will provide more than 20 minutes at the best. There is nobody who will genuinely tell you that hydrogen, renewable energy or batteries are in any way able to provide reliable and affordable electricity to Australia or anywhere else in the world in the foreseeable future, and so I do believe we have a moral imperative to continue providing affordable, reliable electricity.

And let's not forget that in Australia it is the big three that pay for us to have the first-world lifestyle that we have—the big three gorillas of iron ore, gas and coal, and the only difference is the order in which they appear. It is their royalties, their company taxes, the PAYG taxes from the people they employ, and their community contributions that pay for all of the services that we enjoy. The very idea that we would be driving off investment in those industries is economic vandalism. It would be disastrous for this country—40 per cent of all company tax that pays for all of the services and the amenities that we all enjoy, and 1.1 million Australian jobs, jobs that will not readily transfer to polishing solar panels.

Only gas will prevent us having blackouts as early as next winter. That's shocking, isn't it? Next winter we are projected to have blackouts, and that is from the AEMO report that came out yesterday. We will have shortfalls from 2026. That is not 10 years away; that is a heartbeat away. Labor has been in government for two years and our gas shortfall is coming ever closer—nothing except fund the EDO to attack resource projects.