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

As I said, having commissioned—jointly, by the way, with governments of both political persuasions through the COAG process—the Finkel review, the government has adopted 49 of the 50 recommendations of the Finkel report. Senator Bilyk, I must say I entirely disagree with your view that the only recommendation that matters is the one which is currently under consideration. I don't agree with that at all.

If you read the Finkel report, if you read the recommendations, you will understand, Senator Bilyk, that they represent a comprehensive strategy to attack the twin issues of energy affordability and energy reliability. These are the issues that matter most to the Australian people, Senator Bilyk—reliability and affordability. In approaching the Finkel report, and in approaching the appropriate policy choices and policy responses to this problem, this government will be guided by pragmatism. We will be guided by engineering; we will be guided by the facts. One thing that we will not be guided by, Senator Bilyk, is ideology. It is because your side of politics was guided by ideology in its approach to energy policy that, during the period of the Labor government, electricity prices rose by 101 per cent over six years. Because your side of politics, Senator Bilyk, was guided by ideology not engineering, in the state of South Australia the Weatherill Labor government cannot even keep the lights on. The Turnbull government is determined to ensure that power in Australia is affordable and that supply is reliable. And that will shape our response.