Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and acknowledge the hard work he does for people in Biloela, as he makes sure the people in Biloela of the weatherboard and iron have affordable power and do not have to deal with the policies of the basketweavers—or the people of Eidsvold, who need to get affordable and reliable power, who need the dignity of that in their lives and don't have to put up with a policy that's being delivered by incense sticks, which is the policy of the Labor Party; or the people of Mount Morgan, who do not believe they're politically incorrect and do believe that as blue-collar workers they still deserve a job; or the people of Wondai, who believe in affordable power, not wind-chime power, which is what the Labor Party wants to deliver to them. No, these people understand that we have a plan to bring forward power to make sure the baseload power stays on the system, that the coal-fired power keeps going.

Our plan is backed by the National Energy Guarantee, supported by the National Irrigators Council, BlueScope, AGL, Energy Networks Australia, the Grattan Institute, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Energy Council and the Energy Users Association of Australia, because they know that this is a diligent plan.

The member for Flynn would probably be aware of this because in the member for Flynn's seat he has a big coal-fired power station. It supports nearly 1,000 workers, amongst other things, at the Boyne Smelters. These are blue-collared jobs. And the member for Flynn is standing behind those blue-collared jobs. The member for Flynn is not embarrassed about blue-collared jobs. The member for Flynn is a pragmatist about how we keep these men and women in a job.

I want to quote someone from the Labor Party who was talking about that Gladstone coal-fired power station. This member from the Labor Party said: 'Naturally, the Australian Labor Party welcomes Commonwealth participation in the provision of electricity in Central Queensland, which is an area where power has been hardest to come by and is the most expensive in Australia.' That member for the Labor Party—a very prominent member of the Labor Party—later went on to say the only problem he had with the coal-fired power is that the advance was not a grant. Now who was that member of the Labor Party? Who could that be?

An honourable member: Mark Latham!

I'll take the interjection. They've just said Mark Latham. No, it's a bit better than that. You might remember this bloke. He believed in coal-fired power. It was Edward Gough Whitlam. And boy, oh, boy, hasn't the apple fallen a long way from the tree! The apple's gone all the way from Central Queensland to Annandale. The basketweavers now run this. So I say to the men and women of Australia: if you want to pay $66,000 million more than you have to, out of your wallet then vote for the liability which is Bill.

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