Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I will continue on from where I left off last night, when I was interrupted by the adjournment of the House. I was making the point that this is a terrible piece of legislation. It is probably one of the most insidious aspects of the Labor and Green alliance that we have seen in this hung parliament. Long-term damage will be done by this allocation of some $10 billion of Australian taxpayer money, which will be allocated for projects which have not met commercial viability tests, which the market will not fund, and which will distort an already existing market for renewable technologies. It is widely accepted that in renewable energy markets those companies and entrepreneurs who have already invested much in those technologies will be damaged. Those people have already put their own capital and work into creating these circumstances.

The member for Melbourne nods his head—he accepts that. The member for Melbourne knows better than the market does! The member for Melbourne knows exactly which of his mates, which industries, he would prefer to fund with $10 billion of Australian taxpayer money. That is exactly what this is all about. This is part of the sorry deal that the Australian Labor Party have made, much to their shame. We know that there are good ministers in that government who are increasingly stepping out of this deal, who no longer want to be associated with it. One of the ministers at the table, I know, is increasingly uncomfortable. I say, good on that minister, for some of the hard policy decisions he has forced through the Labor caucus in the last week. Good on you, Minister Grey. Good on the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and good on the Minister for Resources and Energy for standing up for good public policy in this nation against the vested interests of those on their left who are putting so much pressure on their base with their idealism, which is outside of the reality of how you need to govern this country.

This will be one of the worst legacies of this Labor government—this Labor-Greens alliance. The minister at the table knows it. That is why he is slowly but surely making his views the real policy views which need to be taken to ensure that this country is successful in the future. We know that the Greens approach to Australian public policy—

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