Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I understand that, Speaker, and that is exactly what my amendment goes to.

We are on clear notice now not only historically, having seen the Liberals, when they are in power, do everything they can to attack renewable energy; we are now on notice that this Leader of the Opposition will do everything he can to slow down investment in renewable energy and storage in this country. The amendment I am moving will enshrine the government's Capacity Investment Scheme in law in order to oblige the next two governments to meet the 32-gigawatt-by-2030 renewables and storage target, which is made up of 23 gigawatts of renewable generation and nine gigawatts of clean dispatchable energy.

We know we need these protections in law. Even now, even from opposition, the Leader of the Opposition's announcements are designed to threaten the unstoppable growth of renewables in this country by giving public support to coal and gas. It should be the other way around. Public money should not be going to prop up coal and gas or nuclear. The support that is needed is the support that is going to drive down emissions and also deliver people the cheapest electricity, which is renewables backed by storage.

For a long time the Greens have called for a renewable target and a storage target to be enshrined in law, to give the industry the certainty it needs and to ensure that we make the shift in an orderly and planned way that drives down the cost of electricity and also drives down our emissions. The Capacity Investment Scheme put forward by the government is not necessarily the way that we would have done it, but it is a scheme that is going to assist with that transition—so we have given it our support. What this will do is essentially Dutton-proof that scheme, Leader-of-the-Opposition-proof that scheme.

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