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

I got the gist, Mr Speaker. I thank the honourable member for his question, but I'm afraid the honourable member is not quite correct on some of the issues that he's raised there. In relation to the AEMO statement last week, AEMO actually underlined the need for more urgent investment in dispatchable renewables, a message this government agrees with. And it's not the first time they've said it. AEMO has issued the Electricity Statement of Opportunities twice a year for several years. For example, in 2021 they said:

… the NEM will need more generation, storage and transmission than is currently operating …

In 2020 they said:

Risks remain that under high demand conditions, or if prolonged generation or transmission outages were to occur again, there may be insufficient generation to meet demand …

They said very similar in 2019. They said very similar in 2018.

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