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

I'm not the only one who thinks it. In response to the announcement last week, those well-known socialists down at the Australian Aluminium Council said:

The Australian Aluminium Council welcomes the expansion of the Capacity Investment Scheme bringing forward investment and placing downward pressure on #electricity prices for #consumers, including households and industry.

Ai Group, the Australian Industry group, said:

Today's announcement of an expansion of the existing Capacity Investment Scheme … will greatly expand the scope of capacity contracts from the Federal Government and looks like a very helpful step to addressing fears that inadequate supply would pose to price and reliability this decade.

The Energy Users Association of Australia said:

We welcome the announcement from the Commonwealth as it should provide a level of certainty for investors and consumers in these highly volatile times. We expect this approach will help facilitate the deployment of renewable energy and storage technology while working to shield Australian households and business from significant increases in energy costs.

I could go on. Group after group, peak group after peak group, know that a more orderly transition, getting more investment in early and getting more dispatchable energy into the grid, is good for prices, good for reliability and good for emissions.

Opposition members interjecting—

The only people who don't get it are the opposition. They've still got their little fantasy wrapped in an illusion: nuclear energy. The Leader of the National Party, to his credit, on Friday was honest. He came out and said, 'We don't expect nuclear energy in the next decade or so, but we've got till 2050.' I've got news for the Leader of the National Party: we don't have till 2050, because we've got to provide reliability in the energy grid today. I don't think we should wait until 2050. As coal fired power ages and becomes more unreliable, we need more investment today. The Leader of the National Party and his cohort might be happy to leave fixing that until 2050. They spent nine years not fixing it. They might as well spend till 2050 not fixing it.

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