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

As I was saying, we saw a record 64 gigawatts of new energy supply in the pipeline and, just in the last quarter, 1.8 gigawatts of new generation reach the position where it's connected to the grid.

Now, the honourable member asked me how this compares to previous approaches. We know that, under the last government, we saw four gigawatts of dispatchable energy leave the grid and only one gigawatt come on. Compare that to all the new energy supply that's coming into place now. It's a direct result of policy. Of course, one of the consistent features over the last term of office was that, between 2018 and 2022, the minister for energy was the member for Hume. We saw a 'Taylor made' energy crisis in this country. We saw disaster after disaster when it came to energy policy. The opposition has been saying a lot about government expenditure and how government expenditure is too high. The member for Hume announced a $1 billion investment in new energy. Do you know how many kilowatts it delivered to the Australian energy system? Zero. Call me old fashioned, but I reckon, if you're spending $1 billion, you'd want to see at least a watt of energy. When we came to office, my incoming government brief told me that Snowy Hydro was running about two years late, but the member for Hume had hidden that fact from the Australian people. Then we had the member for Hume's famous investment in coal fired power, the Collinsville coal-fired power station feasibility study. He announced $4 million and then, two days later, invited the successful proponent to apply. Not only did we not see a coal-fired power station; we didn't even see a feasibility report. It's a tough week for the Leader of the Opposition, but, if the member for Hume is as confident in leadership challenges as he was as energy minister— (Time expired)

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