Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, representing the Prime Minister. Minister, since your government came to office and abolished the price on carbon, the wholesale price of electricity has doubled and pollution continues to fuel extreme weather and threaten the Great Barrier Reef. Despite all that, your government has ruled out a price on carbon, you have ruled out extending the renewable energy target, you have ruled out an emissions intensity scheme, you have ruled out regulating electricity prices and now you're ruling out a clean energy target. Minister, when are you going to accept that having an energy policy that satisfies no-one except for Tony Abbott and your big coal donors is a recipe for high prices, more pollution and fewer jobs?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, I reject every single premise of your question. As I said in response to the two questions I've received from the opposition already, what this government is committed to is a pragmatic set of policies designed to serve the twin objectives of keeping electricity prices as low as possible and ensuring reliability of supply. And the way we're going to do that, as I and my colleagues have told you endless times this year, is to adopt a technology-agnostic approach. We know that the Australian people, electricity consumers, are not interested in Greens' ideology. They're not interested in ideology at all. What they're interested in is in ensuring supply is reliable and power is affordable. And that—and only that—will guide the policy choices this government makes.

Senator Di Natale, among the many premises in your question—which is false and which I disputed—is the assertion that electricity prices have doubled under this government. Have a look at the ACCC's figures that were published this morning which demonstrate that the price of electricity spiked and underwent its sharpest increase during the period of the previous Labor government—when the Labor Party was enslaved to your obsession with resolving this issue according to ideology rather than economics and practical common sense. We are not going to make that mistake. We are going to adopt, as I said before, a technology-agnostic approach; we're going to adopt whatever policies will put downward pressure on prices and ensure the reliability of supply.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, a supplementary question.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, I get that the Prime Minister has been spooked; he lost his prime ministership because of his support for renewable energy. But he's going to lose government because of his anti-renewables stance. Poll after poll has showed that Australians love renewable energy—they love it. So the question for you, Minister, is: who do you stand with? Do you stand with the community, who know that renewables are good for prices and that they bring down pollution? Or do you stand with Tony Abbott and your big coal donors?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, the Prime Minister has made it clear time and again, if you would but listen, that renewable energy will always be an important and a growing component of the energy mix. We have always said that. And that is why, for example, we adopted some of the most ambitious per capita emissions reduction targets in the world at the Paris climate change conference. So renewables are not only an important part of our policy; they are a growing part of our policy.

But, unlike you, Senator Di Natale, we are not obsessed with an ideology. So we acknowledge as well that carbon sources will also continue to be an important part of the energy mix for the foreseeable future—that gas and coal will continue to be an important part of the energy mix, because what we want is the right outcome. What we want is an outcome that keeps prices down and keeps supply reliable.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, a final supplementary question.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, when is the Prime Minister going to show a little bit of courage or some leadership—some guts—by calling for the disendorsement of Tony Abbott, whose only motivation seems to be to sacrifice the Prime Minister to the gods of his own bitterness and vengeance?

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order on my right! Senator Bernardi, a point of order?

Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. It's a point of order about addressing the former Prime Minister by his correct title, which is either 'the member for Warringah' or 'the former Prime Minister'.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Bernardi. It's timely to advise and remind all senators to address members and senators by their correct titles.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, Senator Di Natale, if only you spent as much time thinking about policy as you obviously do about internal political games and third-rate rhetoric—

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How many times have you rehearsed that?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, now, Senator Mathias Cormann cruelly interjects that you rehearsed those lines in front of a mirror! You need to do better, Senator Di Natale! You need to do better than that, Senator Di Natale, if you're going to spend most of your morning in front of the mirror rehearsing third-rate rhetoric.

The fact is, Senator Di Natale, you got this wrong. You've got this wrong from the start, and there's a reason you've got it wrong. It's because for you it's all about ideology. For you it's not about lower prices and more reliable supply for Australian consumers; for you it is all about end-coal ideology, Green ideology. If only you could see—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Point of order, Senator Whish-Wilson.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, a point of order, Mr President. The Attorney-General hasn't come anywhere near answering whether he supports the disendorsement of Tony Abbott from the Liberal Party.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, thank you, Senator Whish-Wilson. The Attorney-General is answering the question and he has two seconds in which to finish.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, if only you would focus on policy, not politics. (Time expired)