Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Claydon, this is the first chance I have had that wasn't a 90-second statement to congratulate you on taking this position and on your performance in our first two weeks. What a missed opportunity this MPI is. On a day when something historic has happened, when this parliament has come together and said, 'You know what—we do give a stuff about the future and we do care about what we leave for our kids and our grandkids,' we have an MPI that has no substance whatsoever. I'm going to work through a couple of the elements of it.

I am disappointed in the member for Lindsay, someone who I know values the Blue Mountains World Heritage area, that she would say that we have spent this week debating legislation that isn't necessary. People who live in the electorate of Macquarie, the neighbouring electorate, and those who live on the extended part of the river—we share rivers, the member for Lindsay and I—think this legislation is necessary because it actually has the potential to change the future of our region in a positive way.

Rather than talking about claims that there are broken promises—and I'll come to that, because there are definitely no broken promises—what I think we could have used this for is to stop arguing about whether or not we need action on climate change and to have an adult debate about the way forward. Let's talk about the different options that we now have with our commitment to a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 and look at how we get there. I know I should not have expected an adult debate from those on the other side. We've never seen one in the six years I've been here, and, clearly, nothing is going to change, even though they're now on the other side, so I mourn the missed opportunity.

I'm in awe of the Minister for International Development and the Pacific. He can remember more of the energy policies of those opposite than I possibly can. We have an absolute conviction in our commitment to make power bills cheaper, and I'm just going to give you a really simple lesson. The more energy at a cheaper price we can get into the grid, which we will rewire so it actually can get from where it's generated to where it needs to go—the more we do that; the more cheap energy there is coming in—the more that is going to be the thing that is real gold for energy prices, for manufacturers who need reliable energy at a cheaper price, for households and for small businesses. It's really simple maths, and I'm disappointed, given the intellectual firepower opposite me, that those opposite have not been able to do the maths and work it out.

But it's not going to happen in nine weeks, and let's be clear about that, so I'm very pleased to say: watch this space. We will keep our commitments because we know that renewable energy is going to be better for our entire economy.

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