Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator and congratulate her on her first question and to her swearing in in this place. If I may hasten to add, I suspect that you are doorknocking but I suspect that you are also putting a view in that doorknocking, which was expressed in the question. What I would say to them is this is the only party that is offering energy price relief. This is the only party which is offering rent assistance—on the back of the biggest increase in many years, another increase. This is the only party that is actually offering a transition to the clean energy future that will be implemented, because—with respect, Senator—your party thinks you can do it by press release and slogans. The hard job of transitioning what has been a fossil fuel dependent economy to a renewable energy economy is one we understand.

This budget invests in a future made in Australia. Do you know what that is about? It is about grasping the opportunities of net zero. It is about recognising that if we want to ensure jobs for our kids and also to deal with the crisis that we see in climate then we have to transition our economy. That means governments have to do what we are doing in this budget, which is giving the signal to the markets and investing to ensure that we drive investment into green hydrogen, into renewable energy, into those industries which are necessary for the clean energy economy. You can tell them this is a government focused on equity now, fairness now for Australians, but also a future which has more opportunity and which grasps the opportunities of a clean energy economy.