Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

So not only is the emissions trajectory improved from when the Labor Party was last in office but we have seen a record spend in renewables. We have also seen an attempt to reduce the power prices by intervening in the gas market, which the Labor Party ignored, by passing legislation to stop the gouging of consumers by the poles and wires companies. If the Labor Party had done that when they were last in office it would have saved them $6½ billion. We are getting better deal from the retailers and also promoting the Energy Security Board's recommendation of the National Energy Guarantee.

There were a whole lot of other questions raised in relation to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is a very reputable organisation with an independent scientific committee, which has been supported in the past by the Labor Party. Of course, this is a record financial commitment by the coalition into supporting the barrier reef, which will support the member for Leichhardt's electorate and many others in Queensland. The member for Macquarie also raised the issue of the 19th-century Thompson Square and the brick barrel drains. I have written to the Premier of New South Wales about the importance of that site.

We on this side of the House know that the work that we have undertaken to invest in heritage; the work that we've undertaken to invest in the reef; the work that we have undertaken to protect our threatened species, which the member for Durack outlined; and the work that we have undertaken to reduce power prices is all making a difference to people's lives. Look at what we do, not at what Labor says. (Time expired)

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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