Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the matter of public importance that has been put before this chamber by my colleague, and fellow senator from South Australia, Senator Bernardi. As a South Australian and a business owner, I, like Senator Bernardi, know the pain being inflicted on my home state of South Australia by the spiralling cost of energy. Extortionate prices are not the only thing we face in South Australia. In South Australia we contend not only with high prices but also with very unreliable power. This can be totally sheeted home to the ill-considered, ideological energy policy that has been inflicted on my state—

Senator Farrell interjecting—

and your state, Senator Farrell—by the Weatherill Labor government. Mr Weatherill's absolutely idiotic 50-per-cent-renewable-energy experiment has made South Australia the laughing-stock of the nation. We can now boast the highest-cost, least-reliable power in the country—in fact, we can boast some of the highest-cost, least-reliable power in the developed world. South Australia's crazy solar- and wind-dependent energy policy forgot that, when the wind don't blow and the sun don't shine, we don't have any power.