Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a real treat to follow a member of the Labor Environment Action Network, I think it is, from Victoria, because the topic of our MPI today is energy policy, and of course what we see across the chamber from the government is a party torn apart by the two factions. We've got the GetUp faction, the LEAN faction, with the member for GetUp, which is how I refer to the member for Macnamara, and we've got the Otis faction. And we did have the member for Hunter in the chamber for a little while at the start of the base. I absolutely respect the member for Hunter. He represents a coalmining province, and his job, like the job of all of us in this place, is foremost to represent the people who live and work in his electorate. So, I want to give a shout-out to the member for Hunter for his stance to protect the jobs and livelihoods of the people who live and work in his electorate.

But that's not the case across the board, particularly through that region. We have the member for Shortland here, who doesn't seem to prioritise the jobs and livelihoods of the people who live in his electorate. It was interesting the other day to see that the CFMMEU had done some polling in those seats, and I think they had the member for Shortland on 29 per cent—which perhaps indicates that the people in his electorate aren't necessarily happy with the stance he's taking on these issues and about whether he's prepared to stand up for their jobs.

But today we're here to discuss the climate and emissions policies of the government, so I want to run through some of the achievements of the government, and they are very impressive. In 2020, a record seven gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity was installed in Australia. That's more renewables in one year installed under the Morrison government than in the whole of the previous, Labor, government's six years—seven gigawatts in 2020 versus 5.6 gigawatts under the previous, Labor, government between December 2007 and September 2013. Australia now has the highest total of solar and photovoltaic capacity installed, per person, in the world, at 644 watts per capita. And emissions in Australia are lower this year than in any year under the previous, Labor, government. So, it's a bit rich of them to come into this chamber and complain about the policies of the government.

Our plan is driven by technology, not taxes. As we all know, technology is moving at an extraordinary pace. Only 10 years ago none of us had an iPhone. Today we're on our third or fourth iteration. The technology has moved so quickly. We know that, in all other areas, technology is moving incredibly rapidly. In 2010 we didn't even know what an iPhone was. Today it dominates our lives.

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