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

And many people who have solar panels and a battery get a net zero energy bill. It is a very good thing to get a net zero energy bill, and some of them, indeed, get paid.

Of course, just as it is on the small scale, this is also true with the large scale. Of course, people in rural and regional Australia know we need to get this right. We need to get the community consultation right and the community benefits right, and it's good to know that around $200 million of community benefits will flow to regional communities between now and 2030 and a billion dollars of benefit to the landholders and farmers who are taking up the opportunities and droughtproofing their income. These are matters that were discussed at the Farmers for Climate Action conference here in Canberra earlier this year, which I spoke at. I didn't run into many members of the National Party there; in fact, I didn't see any. But they know that those in rural and regional and Australia are the people who are going to pay the price of climate change, with natural disasters and farm productivity falling. This was a view put by a delegate from the Young Nationals who said, in relation to any decision to move away from net zero, 'Regional Australians will be paying the price for increased natural disasters.' I think Perrin Rennie is correct. He's speaking up for future generations in regional Australia who know that they will pay a price in natural disasters and falling farm productivity, and that will be the price of the betrayal by those who are meant to represent farmers in regional Australia but who just do not.

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