George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

No, Senator Hanson-Young. Not only can I not confirm any of those things, but I can tell you that every one of the propositions that you have put to me in your question is wrong. Senator Hanson-Young, I must say, in fairness to the Greens, that at least you believe this nonsense—at least you believe this ideologically driven war against the coal industry. Those in the Labor Party are merely trying to follow your lead, and the Australian people know it. But, Senator Hanson-Young, the truth is that, as you well know, for many years to come coal will be an important part of the Australian energy mix. Nobody who has examined this industry with any skill or scholarship disputes that, for many years to come, coal will be an important part of the Australian energy mix.

We on our side of parliament are not ideological about this, as you are. What we believe in is the engineering—we are instructed by the engineering; we are instructed by the economics. What we are doing is designing a suite of policies to make sure that energy is as reliable and as affordable to the Australian people as it can be. That means that we are technology agnostic. Coal, as I said a moment ago, will continue for years to come to be an important part of the energy mix, and so will other fossil fuels like gas and so will renewable energy, which is an increasing part of the energy mix. All of these are important parts of the energy mix, but, unlike the Greens, Senator Hanson-Young, rather than having an ideological—nay, almost theological—obsession with one part of the energy mix, we have an all-of-the-above approach. We have a platform, a technology agnostic approach— (Time expired)