Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. What I am trying to emphasise is that, if you look at what we're doing in terms of improving superannuation, closing the gender pay gap and supporting the things we have done to try and assist the Australian community, everyone is going to be better off. But to say that we are not doing everything we can to help deal with the cost of living is disingenuous. It really is. If you want to look at the difference between what we're proposing in terms of an energy rebate as opposed to what we've heard all this week about the future going back to the 1950s with Mr Dutton and bringing nuclear energy here, that's not really going to help with the cost of living because there's not one expert who believes Mr Dutton's suggestions—the thought bubble that he's grabbed—are ever going to deliver cheaper energy in this country. Not only is it not likely to ever be funded by any financial institution or bank to build these nuclear reactors; the Liberals want to become almost like the Soviet Union and come back to controlling energy in this country rather than supporting renewable energy.

We know, Senator Lambie—because we come from the great state of Tasmania—that renewable energy is the way of the future. We know that hydroelectricity, for over 100 years, has stood the test of time for Tasmania. It's clean, it's cheaper, and we should be doing more—