Ms CLAYDON (Newcastle) (16:01): If ever there were a case study of the complete and utter failure of a government to plan for the future, it would indeed be the Abbott Liberal government's failure to plan for a renewable energy future for Australia. They are so out of touch, out of favour and out of order. Their views are now so completely skewed on this issue that contributions opposite have dared suggest that current policy mechanisms put in place by this government are going to add—somehow, miraculously—to employment gains for Australia. We hear members opposite launch the very sad but predictable attack on Labor's commitment to renewable energies here. The spectre of the carbon tax is very quickly raised on each and every occasion, by those members opposite saying what damage it did to jobs. Let us remind members opposite of the unemployment figures that are around today. They are the very highest since Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister, was himself the minister for employment: 800,000. In my electorate of Newcastle, 610 shipbuilding jobs have gone under his watch. So let us not pretend that members opposite have any answers when it comes to employment. Indeed, if members opposite took any notice whatsoever of the feedback from their so-called listening posts, mobile offices or even regular interactions with their constituents, they would know full well that renewable energy is overwhelmingly popular with Australians—not just in the metropolitan areas, as was suggested by the member for Parkes, but indeed in regional Australia, in areas like Newcastle and the Hunter Region. We know that more than 80 per cent of Australians have now locked in their support for renewable energy. I speak as a member who has the electorate with the largest coal export port in the world. I am not naive about the contribution of fossil fuels to my regional economy. But you know what? The last thing that I and members in my region should do is bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we do not have to plan for some kind of transition to clean energy in the future. Mr Giles: That's leadership. Ms CLAYDON: It is leadership. It is what is sadly lacking from this government. This government is going to leave regional economies like Newcastle and the Hunter hanging out to dry, because it has no plan around a renewable energy future. It has no plan for jobs of the future anywhere. Let us have a quick look at the Liberal track record on renewables. We know, as a number of my colleagues have pointed out, that Australia was ranked in the top four most attractive countries in the world for investment in renewable energies. Since the election of the Abbott Liberal government, we have now plummeted to the 10th. Just last week, I met with wind energy providers in my electorate, who came to thank me for Labor reaching a position—albeit compromised—around the Renewable Energy Target last session, because their industry was haemorrhaging. They had not had a single cent of investment since the election of this government. They know that they are an important part of the future energy mix in Australia. Indeed, they were thankful for Labor's vision and our recent announcement during our national conference that 50 per cent of our energy would be generated by renewables by 2030. I have to say that that is a far cry from what this government has on the table. There will be, as many of my colleagues have pointed out, a very clear choice at the next election. It is only Labor that actually has a plan for the future, that looks ahead, that cares about not only the jobs of today but the also the jobs of tomorrow. It is our plan that will establish a clean energy future for Australia. It is the Abbott Liberal government and this Prime Minister who remain stuck in the past at a time when Australians are absolutely crying out for a vision for the future—a vision that must include renewable energies, and a vision that must be good for our economies and good for our environment.