Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister's former energy adviser Danny Price said that the Prime Minister's refusal to even consider an emissions intensity scheme:

Shows a lack of spine … By doing this, it means they are the party of increasing electricity prices and reduced energy security.

Will the Prime Minister confirm that his lack of spine and his failure to stand up to Senator Bernardi have made the Liberal government the party of increasing electricity prices and reduced energy security?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will invite the very capable Minister for the Environment and Energy to elaborate, but I will just make this point: the Labor Party's record on energy is not a theoretical thing; it is there for all to see: a 100 per cent increase during their time in government—and look at South Australia. The honourable member opposite does not like to acknowledge this. I wonder, does the honourable member have a backup generator at home? Does he really do that? I think he probably does. I think he has got it hidden there under a tarp in the garage, because he knows that, in that socialist paradise, you cannot keep the lights on.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister suggests, 'Maybe he's got a bicycle!' Maybe he has become a political version of a squirrel, running around, keeping the lights on in his place in South Australia.

This is a deadly serious issue for Australian jobs, for Australian families. We can trade some good humour from time to time, but let me be very clear about this. I was there with the member for Wannon in Portland, with members of your union, Bill, and they know their jobs are at risk from Labor Party policies. It is very simple. Their union is affiliated with the Labor Party, but it is the Labor Party's ideological approach to energy that is putting their jobs at risk. You cannot get around that fact. Unaffordable electricity, unreliable electricity, means less investment, businesses closing and Australians losing their jobs. We stand for jobs. We stand for reliable and affordable electricity.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know with the Labor Party you do not look at just what they say; you look at what they do—but sometimes you need to look at what they say. So, when it comes to the emissions intensity scheme which they are promoting today, I went and had a look at what Labor's minister for climate change, Penny Wong, said in 2009 about the emissions intensity scheme. This is what she said—listen carefully:

… it's a mongrel. It's not a credible alternative; it's a smokescreen.

That is what your own minister said about your own policy. (Time expired)

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The level of interjection is far too high. The member for Shortland has been interjecting incessantly, particularly through that answer, along, again, with the member for Barker, certainly the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer and a couple of others. I just caution them and I also caution the member for Rankin.