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

The Turnbull government's commitment to support investment in solar thermal energy at Port Augusta is a real commitment. It was a commitment made before the last election thanks to the strong and powerful advocacy of the member for Grey, Mr Ramsey. It is a commitment that we have been working to see implemented ever since, and we are determined not only to see that project go ahead but to see an overall fix across the board in terms of the failings in the energy market, which have been contributed to by the poor policy positions of the South Australian Labor government. We want to see, through the National Energy Guarantee, something that provides stability and reliability and the certainty that when you turn the lights on, the lights go on. We want to make sure that we don't have states running away with their own different renewable targets but instead we have a mechanism in place that puts reliability on the same platform as reducing emissions, and does so at the lowest cost to consumers. Because keeping electricity prices down is the most important thing to ensure, alongside reliability.