Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can he confirm the government ridiculed renewable energy targets, then flipped, tried to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and ARENA, then flipped, railed against electric vehicles, then flipped, and attacked net zero before adopting it. Why should Australians trust a government with net zero credibility on Australia's clean energy future?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition is just incapable of telling the truth. That is not the position I have adopted. I have opposed the Labor Party's policies on their approaches to addressing many of those issues, but, as we know right now, the Labor Party is voting against hydrogen to be used in infrastructure for vehicles, and they are voting against it in the Senate. They're voting against carbon capture and storage. They're voting against renewable technologies that we want to finance through ARENA and the CFC. They're voting against it.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. Members on both sides! The member for Macarthur! You'd better watch out; you've done your chair duty for the day, so you are vulnerable! The Manager of Opposition Business?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a point of order on direct relevance. The answer's not relevant. It's untrue. It's weird.

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

The Manager of Opposition Business, I was fairly tolerant with the language in the question, which really could have meant anything, when you use words like 'flipped', so I'm going to keep listening to the Prime Minister. I was reluctant to rule the question out of order, but the Prime Minister has the call.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. What I was referring to is that we have a bill in the Senate right now that is seeking support. They are seeking to disallow the regulations—that's what the Labor Party is seeking to do—for our policies, which include $72 million to support electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicle charging infrastructure, $52 million for microgrids in regional Australia, $20 million to look at how we can make heavy trucks more fuel efficient, and $47 million to help heavy industry reduce their energy consumption. The Labor Party has voted against these policies seven times. I'm asked about the issue of trust, in the question. I saw this quote today:

If I was a coalminer, a power generation worker, a manufacturing worker and wanted to look at the bona fides of the ALP … about how they deal with just transition, if you looked at what happened to Victorian timber workers—

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

There's already been a point of order on relevance. That's what I took it as, anyway. I know the Prime Minister's picked out a word, and certainly the way the question was framed what he was saying up until then was perfectly fine, because the question made an accusation about the government's credibility. But, I know on this one, he can't now move to talk about the opposition.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll have to save it for later, Mr Speaker.

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

I don't mind when. Just when you've asked the right questions.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor is not on your side if you're out there working in those industries. That's what union leaders themselves are saying. But our plan is about achieving net zero by 2050 without taking people's jobs, without saying you have to go and mandate what they have to do, without putting taxes on them. The Labor Party have attacked our plan. They don't like our plan. They don't like it that it focuses only on technology to achieve this. I know this: if you're not going to achieve net zero by 2050 through technology, there are only two other ways you can do it—by taxes and heavier regulation, driving jobs out of industries. That's the Labor Party's plan.