Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. We are seeing, over the next 2½ years, an investment of $15 billion committed to new generation in the electricity sector. That will see a 250 per cent increase in the solar and wind in our sector, from nine per cent of generation up to 23 per cent of generation in the next 2½ years. Whilst ensuring that we will get emissions below 26 per cent by the early 2020s, the challenge this creates is we need to have enough dispatchable 24/7 power in the system to keep the lights on and keep prices down. That's why we are underwriting new generation, new supply, to make sure those prices come down.

We are also taking on the big energy companies. And we're doing that because we have seen dodgy practices, we have seen manipulation and we have seen price gouging from those in the energy sector that are more interested in the bottom line than the interests of customers. Those opposite have a big decision to make: whose side do they sit on? Do they sit on the side of the hardworking small businesses and families of Australia—