Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition would be more persuasive in the case he puts if he had not been so eloquent in defending the case for cutting company tax. There has never been a better and more succinct case put for them than by the Leader of the Opposition when he said, 'Lowering company tax will increase productivity, investment and employment.' Well, we are all in favour of that. That is what he said, and he did not just say it once—he did not go as far as the member for McMahon, who wrote a book about it, I have to say—but the Leader of the Opposition, again and again, went out there talking about the importance of cutting company tax.

He was very precise about that, but he has not been so precise on another matter today. Not even the indefatigable Sabra Lane of the ABC could get him to tell us what his Renewable Energy Target would cost. Four times she asked him, and he could not answer the question. He refused to answer the question. It was as though he was hit with a horror of having to face up to his own recklessness. I will tell the Leader of the Opposition this: the people of South Australia know what a 50 per cent renewable target would look like led by a Labor government. They have 40 per cent, and they cannot keep the lights on. That is the reality in South Australia.

See this speech in context