Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I am thankful for and graciously appreciative of the opportunity to answer this question, because it is a very important one. The truth of the matter is that, if you want jobs in manufacturing in this country, you need reliable, affordable gas and electricity. That is the key. We know that there's enormous opportunity for creating jobs in manufacturing in this country, but gas is one of the crucial feedstocks to do that. We need balance in our energy system, and we know, as the Prime Minister said, we are seeing record levels of investment in renewables—6.3 gigawatts of renewable investment last year. That's $9 billion. The Clean Energy Regulator says that we expect to see a similar amount this year. But it needs to be backed up, and it needs to be backed up with dispatchable generation and storage. Snowy 2.0 is a good example of that—two gigawatts of pumped hydro—but we also need, in that mix, gas. Indeed, the Chief Scientist has made this point. I'll read from his comments: 'Gas is effectively the perfect complement to solar and wind.' If we want job creation coming out of COVID-19, we need affordable, reliable energy. We need affordable, reliable gas.

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