QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:43): Coal power is base-load generation. It's designed to run continuously, and when operated continuously electricity generation from coal is reliable and affordable. It only becomes intermittent and expensive when the generator is deliberately turned on and off all the time to give preference to what is really intermittent power: solar and wind.

Minister, why is the government's energy policy set to deliberately destroying base-load power—coal?