STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr BOYCE (Flynn) (13:42): For nearly 50 years, Gladstone Power Station has provided affordable, reliable energy that powers our economy, supports families in the local community and keeps our major industries operating. This week we see that the Net Zero Economy Authority has begun consulting Gladstone workers and the community about what happens when the power station closes.

Let me be very clear about what this means. The consultation is about managing the impacts of a closure that could happen six years before the station's planned retirement. Only weeks ago, Gladstone unit 2 underwent a multimillion-dollar shutdown and overhaul.

This is a power station that is still maintained and invested in to operate, not an asset that has simply reached the end of its useful life. Yet, while workers are still overhauling the machinery that keeps Gladstone operating, the Net Zero Economy Authority has arrived in Gladstone to consult on what happens when it closes. Supplying around 80 per cent of its electricity directly to the local heavy industry, the Gladstone Power Station should remain operating until there is a reliable alternative with genuine certainty for industries and workers who depend on it.

If coal is good enough to power other countries, it should be good enough to power Australia. That is why the coalition is committed to scrapping Labor's ideological net zero mandates and putting affordable, reliable energy and Australian jobs first—because regional Australians deserve better than a government that plans to close all of our industries.