Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Just as the Labor Party created ARENA, the Labor Party will defend ARENA. The Labor Party will support this disallowance, just as we've moved a disallowance in the other place, and we will stand against this illegal regulation.

ARENA has played an important role in the transition that is underway in Australia. When the minister talks about 'technology, not taxes', he ignores the fact that ARENA and the CEFC have been the central bodies driving the take-up of new technology in Australia and that this minister and this government have been addicted to trying to undermine that work at every opportunity. Never let it be forgotten that this government tried to abolish both instrumentalities when they came to office. In fact, before they came to office, the then Prime Minister wrote to the chairs of CEFC and ARENA and told them not to do any more work, because he was going to abolish them if he won the election. That's how keen and arrogant they were. Here we are, almost a decade later, and they're still at it. As has been said by the honourable member for Melbourne, this House may disallow it, the other house may disallow it yet or the courts may disallow it, but it is important that this House and the other house stand up for renewable energy, because this is just the latest iteration of this government's attempt to undermine the focus on renewable energy in ARENA and in CEFC.

This is being done by regulation. There's an important reason it's being done by regulation, which is that this government is so dysfunctional and divided on matters of climate change that they can't trust themselves. They can't trust their backbench to support their legislation when it comes to the CEFC and ARENA. The minister tried to do the same trick with CEFC, but he did that by legislation. He called it a 'milestone bill', and we're yet to see it back in the House. Where's it gone? It's gone missing. It's missing in action. The government couldn't deliver the numbers on their own bill, which they called a milestone, so they thought they'd be very tricky. They've come up with a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a fox. They've done this by regulation. This regulation is being used by the minister to avoid votes in the parliament, because he knows that his backbench might move very inconvenient amendments. You can't do that with regulations.

But there's a problem with the way the minister has done it: he hasn't followed the law. The parliament's committee, which is run on a bipartisan basis, has found a very real prospect that this regulation is in breach of the law. Call me old-fashioned; call me a traditionalist, but I happen to think ministers should comply with the law and should not ask the parliament to vote for regulations which are not in keeping with the law. But this minister, who has made something of a habit of breaching protocols and proper practice in this building, thinks it's perfectly okay to introduce a regulation which members of his own party believe is not in keeping with the law of the land.

This has happened before; governments have brought down regulations which committees have found not to be in keeping with the law. It can happen. I understand mistakes can happen. Do you know what happened in every other instance where that occurred? The government withdrew the regulation. It worked out how to make it in keeping with the law. This minister is so arrogant he doesn't care about those precedents. He is just rolling along, ensuring that ARENA will be extended beyond the purpose of investing in renewable energy. Not only has he enabled ARENA to invest beyond renewable energy; he's actually requiring it to invest beyond renewable energy. He's put a floor on the amount of money that the board of ARENA can invest in non-renewable technologies. That is just not on. It's not on as far as this opposition is concerned; it's not on, as I understand it, as far as the crossbench is concerned.

This is a government which is addicted to undermining ARENA and CEFC. We will not hear one word from this minister about 'technology, not taxes', when he has undermined these technologies at every opportunity. He was there with the rest of them bagging electric cars not so long ago. He was the one who said that climate change was some sort of religion. He was the one who questioned windfarms and the role of wind technology in Australia. He works for a bloke who said that electric vehicles would 'end the weekend'. He works for a bloke who said big batteries are like big prawns and big bananas. That's what this government really thinks about technology. That's what it really thinks about renewable energy. That's what it really thinks about the opportunities that are created in Australia.

It is outrageous, just as this regulation is outrageous. It should be disallowed by this House. It should be disallowed by the other house. The other house will get another opportunity when the committee actually reports and, as a result, moves the disallowance. I would say that's another opportunity for the parliament to declare judgement on the mismanagement by this minister.

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