Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister for Finance, Special Minister of State and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:50): Firstly, I don't accept the premise of the question. Secondly, of course, our National Energy Guarantee is a technology agnostic approach to lower electricity prices, to increase electricity reliability and to achieve emissions reductions in a way that is economically responsible. What I would say to the good senator is that on our side of politics we actually engage in policy discussion. That's a novel thing. We engage in policy discussion in order to get to the best possible way forward for the Australian people. The Labor Party members are treated like mushrooms by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten. In the Labor Party, a decision is made to hit small businesses across Australia for six, impose higher taxes, hurt working families and send jobs overseas. That sort of decision is made by a desperate Leader of the Opposition focused on saving his own job and putting the jobs of millions of Australian workers at risk. That sort of decision is made without even going to the shadow cabinet, the shadow ERC or the shadow Labor— Opposition senators interjecting— Senator CORMANN: Well, I trust David Speers. You trust the journalists— Senator Wong: On direct relevance: the question is, why then is Minister Frydenberg working on an add-on energy policy to address concerns about the NEG and the lack of support for coal, which was reported in The Guardian and, I think, elsewhere. The point of order, as I said, is on direct relevance. How can a discussion about the opposition be directly relevant to that question? The PRESIDENT: You have reminded Senator Cormann of the second half of the question. I'll remind him of the first half and draw his attention to both in answering it. Senator CORMANN: As I said right up-front, we reject the premise of the question. There is no lack of support for coal. We're focused on a policy framework that provides certainty to investors so we can increase energy supplies across Australia in a technology neutral fashion. Increasing energy supplies across Australia will have to bring down power prices. That's what we're focused on. We know it's very important. We know that Australian families and Australian businesses need lower power prices. We know, as a result of the policies that in particular were pursued during the Rudd and Gillard years in government, that power prices have continued to go up, and we're working very hard to bring them down. Minister Frydenberg has been working very hard to make that happen. Of course, the Labor Party is not interested in the answers. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Brown, a supplementary question.