Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on the responses in question time today. Firstly, in their contributions, those opposite talked about questions not being answered directly. You couldn't get any more direct answers to questions than those in question time today from our ministers. They directly answered the questions that were put to them. Unfortunately, the coalition just don't like the answers. The other thing that the coalition don't seem to like are facts. Facts matter. It is important that the coalition are reminded of their record when they were in government when they seek to lay blame at this government's feet for actions the coalition did or did not take—and when we get to energy prices we'll talk about 10 years of neglect in that sector. It matters, and they can't walk away from the decisions they made.

Then we go to the BOM website. Minister Watt has been on the record on so many occasions in the last few days about his expectations and what he has done in terms of the BOM website. I'm going to read some of his response to an interview he gave prior to question time. Why did the coalition ask the question about the BOM website when the answer was already out there? They'd have to go back to their tactics committee to work that one out. Minister Watt said, 'I'm not happy with how this has been managed.' You may have seen a few weeks ago, when the issue first arose around the issue with the website, that he got the acting CEO in for a meeting and said that it wasn't meeting his expectations or public expectations, and since that time they've made changes. He continued: 'We have now all learnt about the cost increases. I would just say the website change was always going to cost more than $4 million.' This actually began under the Turnbull government. I don't know why they're so sensitive over there. That is a fact. It was begun under the Turnbull government, and the first contracts for the new website were signed under the Morrison government in 2019. That's the reality. Not only did Minister Watt respond directly to the questions that were asked of him today by Senator Cadell; he has also been out in the public arena responding to the legitimate concerns of the community and asking the BOM to look deeply into this and come back on how this could have happened.

One of the other questions that was asked today was around energy. This is another area where the coalition will simply not look at their own record. The simple truth is—and the facts are—that the opposition had almost 10 years to put an energy policy in place, and they failed. They're still failing, actually. You only have to look at the complete chaos that's reigned during the last month. For a decade when they were in government, they lurched from slogan to slogan, without delivering a settled plan. They had 23 different policies which came and went. None of them stuck. None of them delivered certainty. None of them delivered investment. All the while, the system aged and the market moved. During their time in government, 24 out of 28 coal-fired power stations announced they were closing, and yet they did nothing to prepare the country for it. As the minister said in question time, power prices will always be lower under this government.