Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The failed energy policy was the one you contributed to wrecking. That was in the government of which you were a part—for some time a cabinet minister and for some time not—where you had four gigawatts exit the system and one gigawatt come in, and, as you know, that creates problems with both price and supply. The reality is that 24 of the nation's 28 ageing coal-fired power stations announced they were closing while you were on this side of the chamber, and you didn't do anything about working out where else supply would come from. What you hoped was that the private sector would invest—it had in the past—and it was very clear that the private sector wouldn't. What I would also say is, if you cared about price, why is it that you opposed energy rebates for Australian businesses and Australian households? Why is it that you opposed them?