Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Dr CHARLTON (Parramatta—Cabinet Secretary and Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy) (18:30): It is very difficult to sit here and listen to the Liberal Party give us a lecture on Australia's economic policy. That's because the Liberal Party, over their recent history, have always got the big calls in Australian economic policy wrong.

Let's remember that it was the Liberal Party that opposed the floating of the dollar in the 1980s. They opposed superannuation in the 1990s. They voted against the fiscal stimulus that saved Australia from recession in the global financial crisis.

It was the Liberal Party that voted against the NBN in the 2000s. It was the Liberal Party that allowed the car industry—indeed, they dared the car industry—to leave in the 2010s. It was the Liberal Party that failed on any measure of budget repair during their nine years in office.

They were unable to deliver a single budget surplus. It was the Liberal Party that opposed the energy transition and, in fact, were only able to produce 22 discarded energy policies. When it comes to looking for Liberal Party bad calls on the economy, it is, as they say, a target-rich environment.

You might think that it would've learned its lesson, but, unfortunately, the Liberal Party is still damaging Australian industry from opposition. Like one of those zombies that never dies, it's still reaching from two horrific electoral defeats to continuing to oppose the Labor government's policies in a number of areas. Firstly, the Liberal Party has been opposing the NRF.

This is despite the fact that the NRF has invested $660 million in local manufacturing. We are yet to hear whether the coalition support or oppose this support, despite the fact that the NRF has allocated $1 billion to critical technologies for Australia's future. The second way in which the coalition have been damaging Australian industry policy is by undermining investment certainty.

This is nowhere more significant than on energy policy. You can't promote investment in Australian industry with uncertainty in energy policy. It's impossible for businesses to invest if they don't know the energy policy settings and they don't know the price of subsequent energy.

But in this country, at the moment, we have a Liberal Party that is reducing the certainty that Australian business has on energy policy. On the one hand, they've got the leader, who is talking about sticking with net zero. They've got Barnaby Joyce, who is talking about leaving net zero.

Today, just after question time, the member for Flynn gave us a highly entertaining but factually very bereft lecture on the causes of climate change. The member for Flynn told us that climate change is happening—he'll accept that; he does have a thermometer—but that it's not caused by humans. In his words, it's caused by 'natural fluctuations'.

How can Australian industry plan for the future if they have absolutely no certainty about the energy policy that would be coming from the alternative Australian government and if they can't even see the alternative Australian government agreeing on whether climate change is caused by humans or not? This uncertainty has real consequences. The uncertainty in energy policy that the coalition has produced over the last 15 years has reduced investment in the energy sector in generation and in transmission.

The member for Cook came into this chamber just a few minutes ago and explained to us that many businesses in his electorate are suffering higher energy prices. Well, he should ask his colleagues why they failed to invest in generation and transmission during the nine years that they were in office. Today, the minister for industry made an important decision to protect Australian smelters, specifically the Mount Isa smelter.

What we've seen just in the last 10 minutes has been extraordinary disarray on the part of the coalition. I was sitting in this very seat listening to the member for Dawson, who said it was a good idea that finally we had stepped up and the government was supporting the smelters but we needed to outline our plan for the rest of the sector. It is terrific to have the member for Dawson's support.

I just wish he'd remained in the chamber for five minutes to listen to his colleague the member for Cook, who said these industries should be standing on their own two feet. He described today's announcement as a symptom of subsidy tendency and opposed the support that the government has provided to the Mount Isa smelter. Again, on issue after issue, the coalition is in absolute disarray.

(Time expired)