Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection, because what we know from those opposite is they seem to be not committed. You are either in on this deal or you are not. You will deliver all of the things you need for technology around nuclear because it is a necessity for the agreement. So face up to facts, those who are opposed. This debate is over. It will be delivered in Australia.

We hear about costs from Labor's long-term plan. It's a long-term alright because, quite simply, 28,000 kilometres of transmission, which has a direct return, a fixed-price return, that is paid for by electricity consumers—do you know how far that is, Madam Deputy Speaker? That 28,000 kilometres sounds like a number, but there's a thing for caravanners and those who travel around Australia called the 'big lap'. The big lap is a circumnavigation of Australia onshore, and it's 15,000 kilometres long.

Effectively, you will have to build transmission almost twice a circumnavigation of this country. And somehow you're going to do that in what time frame? Not very long—without easements, without approvals, without environmental approvals, without an approval from anyone else that you need; whether it's local government or state government, it doesn't matter. The money you have put aside, $20 billion—even AEMO says that is nowhere near enough. It does not cut it. You are tens of billions short. The only thing it can do is drive up the price of power, because it is a regulated cost paid for by electricity consumers. It will impact every single user in Australia. From small business to big business, from pensioners to those hardworking taxpayers, they are getting robbed by this Labor government.

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