Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

It was with great surprise that I, and I suspect many on this side of the chamber, looked this morning at the Financial Review and saw the headline, 'Labor rules out energy deals with Greens'. Well, that was news! It was news, of course, because here in the Senate we see what Labor do and not just what they say. We saw that earlier this year Labor voted with Greens senators on a motion that said coal 'has no long-term future in Australia'. That sounded like a cosy Labor-Greens deal. Late last year, Labor co-sponsored a Senate inquiry with the Greens, with the ambition to 'encourage the retirement of coal-fired power stations'—another cosy Labor-Greens policy deal. The Labor-Greens inquiry even went so far as saying:

The question is not if coal fired power stations will close, but how quickly …

We know that, contrary to how Labor might want to brief the media now, they will always be in bed with the Greens and always be a danger to affordable and reliable energy in Australia.