Duncan Spender (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. Today we are debating a matter of public importance from the Greens criticising the coalition for propping up coal. This is a bit rich, because the coalition haven't made a decision yet. They are still in policy paralysis. They're not yet propping up coal; it might happen soon.

If they do end up propping up coal, it will probably just offset the fact we have policy that props up renewables. For two decades, we have had the Renewable Energy Target introduced by John Howard and ramped up by Labor. The Renewable Energy Target essentially involves providing renewable generators with whatever it takes to achieve a certain market share. These subsidies to renewable generators come, effectively, from non-renewable generators like coal-fired generators. That means that over the past 20 years, if you've contemplated investing in new capacity for coal-fired power, you've had a dagger hanging over your head. Who would ever invest in coal-fired power if the proposition is that you are liable to pay your competitor whatever it takes for your competitor to achieve a certain market share? You would have been crazy to invest in coal over the past two decades, because of the Renewable Energy Target. Unsurprisingly, we've seen next to no investment in new capacity in coal over the past two decades, and unsurprisingly, because of the lack of new capacity in coal, we've seen price rises, on average, of eight per cent over the past decade.

The best approach, of course, is not to prop up anything. If we didn't prop up renewables, of course, there'd be no question you wouldn't need to prop up coal. The Renewable Energy Target lasts till 2030. People say, 'Oh, it's winding down.' No, it's still in place till 2030. It should be abolished now. We still have the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which is providing grants just to renewable projects. It should be abolished now. Any commitment to technology neutrality should mean we abolish it now. Finally, there's the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which provides loans to uncommercial renewable projects. We should abolish it now.