Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

It is pretty graceless, when young people are having a go, coming to the parliament and expressing their view to members of parliament, senators and ministers, to be howling down an acknowledgement from the government that it is a good thing. Young people get it. Our young people get the imperative about climate change and energy. They also understand the scale of the challenge that is in front of Australia after a decade of policy inaction, disinvestment and capital flight caused by those opposite when they were in government.

We are setting about the task of building a new, low-cost and clean-energy-emission electricity system. There are all sorts of people who endorse this approach. It was endorsed, in fact, by a former leader of the government in the Senate and former Liberal finance minister, Secretary-General of the OECD Mathias Cormann, who said just this week:

What is important for Australia, for countries around the world, is not to continue the debate about whether or not to pursue the net zero objective, but how to do it in the best possible way.

Well, there you go. Over in the House of Representatives, it is the silly-billies Mr Joyce and all these other characters—