Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator Ayres. Yesterday, the energy minister recommitted to Labor's goal of reaching 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. In the first two years of your government, renewable energy has gone from 31 per cent of the electricity grid to 35 per cent, growing at a rate of just two percentage points per year. Renewable electricity's share would need to grow at quadruple that rate, at eight percentage points a year, to reach 82 per cent by 2050. What evidence does the government have that this is possible without the mass devastation of the Australian environment and without ignoring widespread community opposition to its renewables rollout?

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

It is a pleasure to get a question from the known environmentalist, who's passionate about the modern future of the electricity system, Senator Canavan. It is the case—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

That's right. Senator Canavan says he's mates with Bob Brown on these questions. That's nothing to be proud of, in terms of the renewable rollout. That's nothing to be proud of, because on this side—you interjected, and I answered!

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan, on a point of order?

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's on relevance. The minister has spent 30 seconds denigrating me, and the question is about his government's renewables rollout.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan, I believe you interjected, and, as you know, the minister is entitled to take your interjection. If it wasn't you, I apologise, but it was certainly someone in that direction. I beg your pardon; it was Senator Cadell. I would happily draw the minister back to the question, but you need to keep your side quiet because the minister is entitled to take interjections.

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

We have an enormous task in front of this government and in front of Australia. It is a task that is in the national interest. It's a task that has been made so much harder by two things that your side of politics could have made a patriotic national contribution to, and that is by spending the last ten years of the miserable arc of the Morrison-Turnbull-Abbott inaction period actually building a little bit of generation capability and building a little bit of transmission capacity—doing a little bit of work and lifting a bit in the national interest. Instead, what happened? Nothing. Four gigawatts went out of the electricity system, and only one gigawatt went in.

Off that base of inaction, we are working hard as a government to deliver 99 projects. They have been approved by this government to deliver energy for Australia and electricity for industry. But, of course, we started ten years behind because of the failure there. Secondly, wandering around in regional communities using the kind of hyperbole and misinformation generated mostly from internet offshore extremist politics is not in the national interest. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan, first supplementary?

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government's 82 per cent renewable energy target was derived from its RepuTex modelling that claimed that Labor's energy plan would lower power bills by $275 a year, which has not happened. Given that the government has distanced itself from this modelling, what additional modelling has the government done to give the Australian people confidence that its renewable targets are achievable?

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

One of the advantages of being in government is that you have all of the machinery of government and all the capability of government to make assessments about what is in the national interest in terms of climate change targets and in terms of the delivery of a low-cost, reliable electricity system. We're ably assisted in that by the new chair of the Climate Change Authority, Mr Kean, a former Liberal treasurer from New South Wales, who's working with the government and supporting the government's assessments on these. He's on the ground in regional communities and working with the electricity sector to make sure that we deliver the best outcome in the national interest, because we're focused on the real national interest for Australian industry and Australian households.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan, second supplementary?

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's clearly a hit-and-hope strategy. Last week, Minister, you said in question time that the big obstacle to transmission projects was 'silly billies stoking fear in the regions'. The Victorian farmer Rachel McIntyre has said: 'It's going to be difficult to farm underneath these transmission lines. We have a lot of legal operations we now need to consider, even just to do our daily tasks.' Does the minister believe that farmers like Ms McIntyre are an obstacle to the government's plans?

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

No. You know, it's sort of like the old FSB propaganda operation—the misdirection operation. That's what happened. Senator Canavan, you are the captain of the silly billies, he is the deputy of the silly billies—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister Ayres, withdraw that comment.

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

I withdraw all of it. Of course people like Ms McIntyre, and other people in the farming community, should be consulted; of course they should be engaged with. What they don't need is the silly billies from the Liberal and National parties campaigning against renewable developments hundreds of kilometres away from where they live because they are picking up the extremist politics from offshore, delivered by propaganda outfits that are not Australian and not acting in the Australian national interest, and creating fear and apprehension in their own partisan interests. (Time expired)