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

The energy guarantee delivers the reliability guarantee and the emissions guarantee. It achieves both of these objectives, and it does so at least cost because it does so in a coordinated way, meeting these requirements simultaneously. It means that coal, gas, hydro and biomass will be rewarded or recognised for their dispatchability—that they can be put into the market when required—but lower emissions technologies including wind, solar and hydro will equally be recognised for their role in meeting the emissions reduction guarantee. The truth is that under these reforms reliability won't be traded away to meet emissions targets. Emissions targets won't be sacrificed to meet reliability. But what we will see is indeed that we will get both: we'll get the reliability and we'll meet the emissions targets. Most importantly to Australian users, the evidence is clear that we will do so at the lowest cost by using the existing electricity market systems.