Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Chief Scientist has said about new coal-fired power stations:

… it would be surprising if governments were to endorse a … scheme that incentivised them.

I give the Prime Minister another opportunity: does he agree?

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

I can tell the honourable member precisely what the government's position is on energy policy, and that is this: ours is based on economics and engineering. The honourable member's position is based on politics and ideology, and it has failed. It has failed Australia manifestly. It has failed Australian consumers. The reality is simply this—that the clean energy target proposed by Dr Finkel would provide an incentive to forms of generation that are lower than the benchmark of so many kilograms per tonne or per megawatt hour. That is how it would work. That would benefit any generation, whether it is coal, whether it is gas, whether it is renewable, as long as it was below the benchmark, but it does not penalise forms of generation higher than that. That is the simple fact. The honourable member can have whatever views he likes about the economics of the electricity industry, but the reality is this: the time for politics and ideology is over. Australians want solutions. They want a plan.

The honourable member can write me lovely letters. He likes writing me letters, and he is always so sanctimonious in his letters. This is good Bill. This is the goody-two-shoes. He always appeals to bipartisanship, he sends the letter round and I am sure he feels really good about it. He writes that letter and I think what he really says is, 'Now I've got that bipartisanship off my chest, I'll get back to the old Bill,' and of course we get the same ideological and political attacks that we have always had.

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

The Prime Minister will refer to members by their correct titles.

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

What we have is a challenge in our energy sector. Energy is too expensive, it is not reliable enough, and we need to have a plan to meet our emissions commitments: 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030. That is our commitment. Labor wants to do double that. They want to have 50 per cent—

An honourable member: Forty-five per cent.

Forty-five per cent, I am corrected, by 2030. They have no plan for that. They were not even aware—so dimwitted is this bunch of left-wing ideologues opposite, so utterly untutored in anything to do with engineering or science; these fools were happy to have lots of renewable energy, but it did not occur to them—that sometimes the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine, and they forgot to do anything about it The member for Port Adelaide, better than anyone, knows what that means: the most expensive, least reliable power in Australia. (Time expired)

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr Falinski interjecting —

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

I am just going to say to members, who I have asked to stop interjecting—many of whom have been warned—that I will have no choice but to start ejecting them from now on. The level of noise is far too high. The member for Mackellar is warned.