Senator WILLIAMS (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (15:13): I'm amazed that the opposition wants to raise this discussion on electricity. If we turn the clock back a few years to when there was no carbon tax, what happened? Along came a carbon tax, and up went the prices. Of course, Mr Abbott and the coalition promised to abolish it if we won the election in 2013, and we did. And down went prices, the biggest drop in many years. I find it amazing. We have Senator Keneally here in the chamber at the moment. Just before she was kicked out of government in New South Wales, what did she do? Her government put in the gross feed-in tariff. What a circus! Sixty cents a kilowatt hour. How did it work? Wealthy people could— Senator Keneally: It wasn't the Keneally government. Senator WILLIAMS: We're getting a reaction now! The wealthy people could afford to put the solar panels on, and they paid them 60 cents a kilowatt hour. This is after they privatised most of the generators. Sixty cents a kilowatt hour, and who paid for it? It was the poor people. Even members of your Labor government told friends of mine what a crazy policy it was. And so I look forward to Senator Keneally telling us about bringing power prices down. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Keneally? Senator Keneally: The good senator is misleading the Senate. It was not the Keneally government that brought in gross feed-in tariff— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: That's a debating point, Senator Keneally. Senator Keneally: In fact it was the Keneally government that stopped it! The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Keneally, resume your seat, please. Senator Williams, continue. Senator WILLIAMS: Well, if it wasn't the Keneally government, she was certainly part of it because it was a Labor government before March 2011, when in came the gross feed-in tariff—and what a circus it was! Senator Keneally interjecting— Senator WILLIAMS: And then you sold the generators. You didn't sell Adele. That went for $1. Senator Keneally: Madam Deputy President, point of order: the Keneally government did not sell the generators either. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Keneally. Those are debating points. Senator WILLIAMS: It's good to get a bite. I will tell you why Senator Keneally is on her feet. She used to drive the bus in New South Wales and now she is here sitting down the back of the bus. But she won't be at the back of the bus for long. She'll want to be up the front of the bus. In fact, she'll want to be driving the bus. I've said to Senator Wong, 'Don't worry about us on this side of the chamber; get a mirror mounted in front of the chamber and look at those behind you, because that's where your enemies are.' And the one that used to drive the bus in New South Wales is the one who wants to drive the bus here again, for sure—and, of course, the same old, same old will happen. But for Labor to talk about electricity prices just amazes me. Senator Keneally interjecting— Senator WILLIAMS: Hello; the bus driver, Senator Keneally, is trying to take a point of order over there. We're talking about electricity prices. Here we are in a country wallowing in energy. Those over there simply despise coal. I can't believe that the CFMEU—the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union—donate money to the Labor Party and the Greens. What do the Greens hate? They hate construction; they hate forestry; they certainly have it in for the miners; and, when it comes to energy, all the Greens want is renewables—and don't go near coal, mining and iron ore. I can't believe the CFMEU donates so much money to those opposite. The Labor Party run down the Green road just to keep their Green competitors off-road and protect their political grass. It's just amazing that that union donates money to those people. The only friends that union has in here when it comes to mining are the coalition, who support mining and coal-fired generation. It's amazing how many plants have been built all around the world. There are 10 new plants in Japan and there are many, many more in China. But I'm sure we'll get on to that with the MPI today moved by the Greens about how we are going to prevent droughts. The Greens are going to prevent droughts by reducing our CO2 levels. Apparently if we have all renewable energy, we won't have a drought in the future. What a fallacy! It's quite amazing that those opposite want to go down the road of expensive electricity. All they talk about is expensive electricity, which will drive our industries overseas—shut the cement industry down here and move it over to China, where they put out more emissions. Those opposite are very much against the Adani coalmine. Well, Mr Shorten is against it when he's in Melbourne but he supports it when he's in Queensland. So it just depends which part of Australia he is in. Instead of these new coal-fired generators that are being constructed around the world, with hundreds of units of them in places like China, India, Japan, Indonesia, India and even Vietnam—with 34 units being constructed there—those opposite don't want them to burn the more efficient, Australian coal with fewer emissions and less environmental damage, they want to shut ours down and not open new coalmines and burn less efficient coal, brown coal, produced by countries, such as Indonesia and China, that have the worst effect on the whole globe. We're not living under a tent. When are people going to learn that we're not living under a tent in Australia? As Dr Finkel said, no matter what we do, we're going to make little or no change to the environment; just put the costs up. This NEG is about stability and bringing electricity costs down. (Time expired) Question agreed to. Answers to Questions