Doorstop interview at Parliament House

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY, SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER: Last night, the Senate Committee handed down its report into the Safeguard Mechanism and disappointingly, although perhaps unsurprisingly, Coalition senators have recommended that the Safeguard Mechanism not be passed. Now it seems that the Coalition have learnt absolutely nothing from their decade of denial and delay.

It was a decade which saw investors calling for policy certainty on climate and on energy to no response, no meaningful response from the previous Liberal government. And the consequence of that was felt by ordinary Australians. Four gigawatts of dispatchable capacity left the system, only one replaced it. The uncertainty generated by the Coalition's inability to land an energy policy to come to an agreement within their divided party room had real costs for our energy system and real costs for Australians.

We have a choice. We have a choice before us to end the uncertainty, the climate wars that has been produced by this chaotic period of Coalition government and move on. There are real opportunities for Australians. Jobs, jobs in our regions and a more certain energy future, playing a constructive role in the international community to put downward pressure on prices and downward pressure on emissions. This is the opportunity before the Parliament. It's a real opportunity, it's an important opportunity. We are working with Parliamentarians across the divide, those who will work with us, and we're determined to get it done.