QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr BOWEN (McMahon—Minister for Climate Change and Energy) (15:08): What I will do is what every member of the cabinet will do, which is work every day in the best interests of working Australians to ensure that they have access to a brighter future, to ensure that they have access to the job opportunities created in a decarbonising world, and to ensure that we don't repeat the 10 years of denial and delay which saw 24 coal-fired power stations announce their closure and the government of the day do absolutely nothing about it.

We saw the government of the day put their head in the sand and pretend that they had could ignore the problem. They left Australia's workers exposed and they gloated when an industrial facility closed. They goaded them into closing.

At this dispatch box, the then treasurer of Australia dared Holden to close their operations in Australia, which had existed for generations. The then treasurer of Australia said, when an aluminium smelter announced its closure, 'We shouldn't get too despondent about one facility closing.' What an outrageous offence to the workers of Australia! That's not something that will happen on our watch.

What we will do is work every day with every ounce of energy we have to ensure that Australians have access to good, well-paying jobs, to ensure that Australia's natural advantages, our national advantages, are seized as we embark on the path to net zero. We are unified in our belief in the benefits of net zero, we are unified in our belief that Australia's best days are ahead of us and we unified in our belief that we cannot return to 10 years of denial and dysfunction.