Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to coalition questions but particularly in relation to the energy disaster that we have in this country. I know Senator Walker is a new senator, and I give Senator Walker a lot of leeway. But, when Senator Walker reads Labor Party talking points that seek to monumentally mischaracterise our position, that's disgusting. There's no climate denialism. We have made it very clear that we have a responsibility to reduce emissions, to play our role. So, Senator Walker, before you make those claims again, please check your facts. But we will not stand by and watch this government send our country backwards—because that is what is happening. Senator Walker may not be aware, and other ministers seek to misrepresent or conveniently overlook the facts in this chamber, but today the Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that electricity prices have risen 37.1 per cent in 12 months. That is horrific! It's fine to senators opposite if they're earning $200,000-plus a year; maybe it doesn't matter. But I can tell you it matters to a lot of people, including a lot of Victorians, who literally have to make a choice between eating and heating. What is happening in this country is a disgrace.

As for the part-time Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Mr Bowen, spending more time with his ideological obsession for Labor's renewables-only madness, he should go to Turkiye and stay there. I am of the view that the Prime Minister needs to replace this hapless energy minister. He is the emperor with no clothes, on his horse, riding down the street, saying, 'There's nothing to see here,' but Australians can see the bare facts. Our energy security is going backward. Power and gas prices are skyrocketing. We are being denied base load power, and the government has just signed up to an international agreement which commits this country to phase out coal and gas. We are blessed with the resources of our country—coal, gas, critical minerals, uranium—and now this government has recklessly signed an agreement which puts at risk our second and third biggest exports, coal and gas, valued at $150 billion a year. And, yes, the lights did go dim in this chamber due to a power outage. This is exactly what we are facing as a nation: brownouts and blackouts as far as the eye can see under this government's renewables-only policies, which are causing so much environmental and economic harm to our country.

So I say the decision to abolish zero is not only responsible; it's the right thing to do for our country. What this government is doing is denying Australians base load power.