MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (16:04): I can tell the House that it was with great sadness that the member for Grey had to get up and ask his question to the Prime Minister today—a question the Prime Minister did not have the decency to answer. But you feel very personally when people in your electorates lose their jobs and the business that sustains them, their families, their lifestyles and their communities because it closes down.

I can tell everyone with a very heavy heart that the member for Grey is dealing with these particular issues at the moment. I think the causes of these issues need to be taken a lot more seriously by the government, and concern and care for those workers who have lost their jobs need to be taken with a lot more of a sense of responsibility The issue I have with this government is—you can call it ideology; you can call it whatever you want.

Sometimes, if you want to believe something enough, you can delude yourself, and the government with its ideology about what renewables can and can't do deludes itself that a grid dominated by renewable energy can sustain heavy manufacturing in this country. It is not the case, and it has been shown around the world—Germany is suffering from this, as are many parts of Europe—that, when you try to run a significant heavy industrial economy using intermittent power as the dominant source, it physically doesn't work.

We can argue across the chamber on the politics of this, but it's actually about the physics. It's about the physics of whether intermittent power, which, in moderation and in certain circumstances, is a very good thing, can sustain the sort of manufacturing that is necessary for this country to have sovereign capability? Mr Abdo interjecting— Mr BIRRELL: Deputy Speaker, the member for Calwell is interjecting out of his seat.

It's highly disorderly, and I'd ask you to make a ruling on it. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): I actually warned the member for McEwen three times now. You need to stop interjecting.

Also, Member for Calwell, I'm noting you as well. Mr BIRRELL: I think the member for Barker made a really good point: the demand for these products that we're making, that we have been making in Australia, such as structural steel, which is basically a combination of iron ore and the energy that we can produce, is not going to reduce globally. We still need to build things made of steel, and structural steel is still going to have a huge demand around the world.

The only difference is that, because of the failed energy policies of the Albanese government, these industries and these processes are going to be moved offshore, like so many things. What are we going to do then? We're going to purchase them back.

The emissions will leave Australia, but they won't leave the globe. The jobs will leave Australia, but they won't leave the globe. And, as the member for Barker quite rightly pointed out, the conditions, the safety and the energy efficiency of the processes of structural steel, to fill the world's demand, will not go away, but it'll be made somewhere with less efficiency, less worker safety and less worker remuneration.

That's happening in so many industries across Australia: we're pushing things offshore, because we're not facing the reality of what type of energy mix and grid is required to sustain heavy industry in a country that has a bounty of iron ore, a bounty of high-quality coking coal, a bounty of gas and a bounty of, yes, uranium. I believe it will not be too long before the Australian Labor Party is going to have to face this folly of being too reliant on intermittently generated power and come to the conclusion, like the rest of the world, that some form of nuclear power is going to be necessary for Australia to continue with the standard of living we have had.