Senator RENNICK (Queensland) (18:55): Here are the facts. State governments run energy. It beggars belief that you could come into this chamber and try and blame the federal government for what is the responsibility of the state government. It's not rocket science. Read the Constitution. Let me tell you something. This is how it works. The swing state in energy, like it is with the economy, like it is with elections, is Queensland. Queensland has power capacity of 14 gigawatts, yet we use only 10 gigawatts. What that means is that the extra four gigawatts goes around the rest of the contrary. On the cost, just last week a private industry decided that they're going to spend $350 million on creating a new solar wind farm in Queensland. That is a white elephant, because we don't need the energy. We've already got the energy. Any energy that's brought onto the system is going to have to go down to New South Wales or the south side, South Australia. The problem with that is that there's only a one-gigawatt transmission line. We already have four gigawatts of excess transmission, so why on earth would you go and build more renewable energy sources when there's no need for it? Why would you do that? What makes this even worse is that the Queensland state Labor government think this is fantastic. They're trying to kill their own business. You see, Queenslanders know not to sell their power assets. They swear by their coal-powered power stations, as Labor found out, to their detriment, at the last federal election. Their own state government wants to destroy the power assets of the people of Queensland. The Queensland state Labor government is boasting about going to 50 per cent renewable energy. They want to destroy the very asset that belongs to the Queensland people. This $325 million investment is going to have to be absorbed through higher energy prices. It's not that hard to understand. We have an overinvestment in renewables— Senator Carol Brown: Mr Acting Deputy President, on a point of order: I think the senator misunderstands what the actual MPI is about, because he's certainly not talking about families. Senator RENNICK: With respect, that's not a valid point of order and I'm sure you can recognise that. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Griff ): I don't consider it to be a point of order on relevance in this particular instance. Senator RENNICK: Of course I'm talking about families. Families have power bills. It's not rocket science. They have power bills that come to them from the Queensland state government. Let's look at what the Queensland state government did last year. They gouged an extra $269 million out of their energy assets—an increase of 26.7 per cent. I'm going to repeat that again, just so Hansard gets it: an extra $269 million. Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad are gouging the Queensland people. Unbelievable. And they want to make matters worse, because now they've brought the closure of Callide B power station in Biloela forward by 10 years. This is alarming, because that power station helps power one of Queensland's industrial powerhouses: Gladstone. If Gladstone goes, Queensland goes. If Queensland goes, Australia goes. How dare you jeopardise the town of Gladstone, a major manufacturing hub in this country! One of the great works of Leo Hielscher and the Bjelke-Petersen government was setting up the Yarwun alumina refinery using their own bauxite up in Weipa and creating jobs for regional Queensland. And that is now under jeopardy. But let's get onto health costs and the blowout of Queensland Health. I wonder why that is? Let me see. The cost of the blowout and the cost of the Sunshine Coast hospital— Senator Carol Brown interjecting— Senator SCARR: And how did that happen? The unions gouged all that money, just like they're now doing with the casino. They're going to knock off work when it gets hotter than 28 degrees. Fancy knocking off work when it gets hotter than 28 degrees in Queensland—unbelievable! In the last five years, the federal coalition government has funded Queensland Health by an extra $1.6 billion, and where does that money go? It certainly hasn't decreased waiting lists, has it? It hasn't decreased ambulance waiting lists. It hasn't decreased— (Time expired)