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

I can tell the honourable member precisely what the government's position is on energy policy, and that is this: ours is based on economics and engineering. The honourable member's position is based on politics and ideology, and it has failed. It has failed Australia manifestly. It has failed Australian consumers. The reality is simply this—that the clean energy target proposed by Dr Finkel would provide an incentive to forms of generation that are lower than the benchmark of so many kilograms per tonne or per megawatt hour. That is how it would work. That would benefit any generation, whether it is coal, whether it is gas, whether it is renewable, as long as it was below the benchmark, but it does not penalise forms of generation higher than that. That is the simple fact. The honourable member can have whatever views he likes about the economics of the electricity industry, but the reality is this: the time for politics and ideology is over. Australians want solutions. They want a plan.

The honourable member can write me lovely letters. He likes writing me letters, and he is always so sanctimonious in his letters. This is good Bill. This is the goody-two-shoes. He always appeals to bipartisanship, he sends the letter round and I am sure he feels really good about it. He writes that letter and I think what he really says is, 'Now I've got that bipartisanship off my chest, I'll get back to the old Bill,' and of course we get the same ideological and political attacks that we have always had.

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