Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Fairfax—he's not the suppository of all wisdom, to quote George Bush. But it is so important for Australia's economic future. This is the bit that they don't get. Australia has the best renewable energy resources of any OECD country. We can reclaim the advantage in cheap, ubiquitous power that we had through the 1960s and seventies and onshore manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs, many of them in regional areas, if only this entire parliament—not just this side of the House and the people over there but all of the parliament—would embrace a renewable and clean energy future. The crossbench and the teals get it. They get it on renewable energy. Even the Greens political party, I'll admit, so far get it, and, rarely, their actions in the parliament actually match their words. Unlike, of course, with affordable housing, where they see one thing in their electorate and then do another up here.

When push comes to shove, the Greens political party always vote against affordable housing, but on renewable energy they've done the right thing so far this term.

There is one group in parliament, of course, that doesn't get it. That's the opposition—the Liberals and the Nationals—who are stuck in the Dark Ages after the decade of delay and division and dysfunction. They're still arguing over whether climate change is real, instead of seizing those opportunities—lower pollution, cheapest form of new power and jobs, jobs and jobs. Even from a national security point of view, every major military of every developed country has climate change risk near the top of their risk profile. Those geniuses over there say they're serious about national security. If they were, they would be serious about action on climate change. They're two sides of the same coin.

But words don't convince them. Reason doesn't convince them. Evidence doesn't convince them. Let me put it in political terms which they might understand. The only reason that these fine women, the teals, are sitting over here, occupying these seats is the previous government's inaction on climate change. I'll illustrate it. Remember Josh Frydenberg? Remember this other former future prime minister, Tim Wilson? We had Dave Sharma; remember him? He's a goner.

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