Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security. Will the minister inform the House what the expansion of the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme would mean for our national security?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for his question and acknowledge his ongoing interest in national security, including the vital Air Force training range at Evans Head, which contributes to training for our overseas operations. He knows energy security is vital to our national security.

As the House is aware, on 10 February the Department of Defence was asked by ActewAGL and the New South Wales department of environment to assist with load shedding. Having parts of the Department of Defence put onto generators is a rare and significant event. Defence has generators for a reason—as a backup for our critical systems—but we should not have to use them to help keep the lights on. As I have said before, the Australian Signals Directorate data centre was switched over to generator power on 10 and 11 February. In addition, a generator was used as an alternative power source at Garden Island, Sydney, on 10 February, and a generator was used as an alternative power source at the Randwick Barracks on 10 February.

The Turnbull government is the first government to take cybersecurity seriously. It has also fully funded the defence white paper. The government knows that these investments need to be backed by investments to secure our energy supply. That is why the Turnbull government has announced an electricity game changer: the Snowy Mountains scheme mark 2. An expansion of the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme will mean that our energy grid will have greater stability. We will increase the generation of the Snowy hydro scheme by 50 per cent, adding 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy to the national electricity market—enough to power half a million Australian homes. This will be the largest facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere. You cannot have an aspiration, a target, an aim or a goal when it comes to energy security. You cannot have an aspiration, a target, an aim or a goal when it comes to national security. This is why we have announced the Snowy Mountains scheme mark 2. The Leader of the Opposition should stop carping about it, stop his negativity, stop his approach—which is just saying, 'no, no, no'—and get on board and support it.