Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Swan for her characteristically considered contribution to the debate on the safeguard mechanism today, which draws on her deep experience in the private sector before the good people of Swan, in their wisdom, sent her here to work with us in this place. The safeguard mechanism is all about cleaner, cheaper, more reliable and increasingly renewable energy, which is all about creating new jobs and new industries at the same time as we maximise our areas of traditional economic strength.

For too long in this country, big employers and investors haven't had the certainty that they need to invest in cleaner and cheaper energy, which will power the future of our economy and power future prosperity as well. The energy transition is absolutely critical to the future of our economy. That's something that we recognise, that the member for Swan certainly recognises and that the business community recognises as well. That's why it beggars belief that those opposite—the so-called 'party of business', as the member for Parramatta said a moment ago—are voting against their own safeguard mechanism for base political reasons. They do this in the face of overwhelming—

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